ABSTRACT
Chapters 3 and 4 reviewed a wide range of GIS applications to environmental matters, also showing how limited their capabilities are when used on their own and without pre-programming. This chapter discusses the use of expert systems (ES) technology, in particular in combination with GIS, arguing that “partial” technologies like GIS maximise their contribution within the framework of decision-support tools. The chapter first discusses the use of ES without GIS, and then with GIS, in Impact Assessment and environmental management, following the same distinction used when reviewing GIS applications in the previous chapters. Decision support systems are discussed afterwards.13
