RESEARCH ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERT SYSTEMS IN GEOGRAPHY

The author, in a report on the status and prospects of artificial intelligence and expert systems in geography, provides interesting insights into Soviet work in this field. Items cited in the bibliography indicate both the growing familiarity of Soviet scholars with Western work on the subject and an increasing volume of Soviet research. A simplified working design of an expert system is elaborated and a “productions” logical structure for its operation outlined. Existing and potential applications of artificial intelligence and expert systems in geography then are described on the basis of both Soviet and Western experience (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).