Computer-aided decision support system for hillside safety monitoring

This study focuses on describing the development of a decision support system (DSS) for safety monitoring of hillsides. Within this system, the checklist used by personnel or instrument monitoring is adopted for hillside data collection. Applying fuzzy set theory, the system analyzes collected data and identifies slope stability, locating areas of adverse conditions requiring attention and listing their possible causes. Within this paper, the system development process and the implementation usage are discussed in detail. Using this research, it is shown that instrumentation programs can not only fill gaps of design insufficiency, but also provide needed safeguards, highlighting the adverse effects of hillside development. Furthermore, as compared with manual methods, this system significantly improves automation in safety monitoring, enhances computational efficiency and increases data accuracy and consistency. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.