Managing environmental knowledge and the necessary IT tools - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 433

the right place thereby enabling access to the right knowledge at the right time. In
other words, available knowledge is managed to improve the sharing of knowledge by
those interested (Leondes, 2002; Ferguson, 2005; Addicott et al ., 2006; Maier, 2007).
Management of available environmental knowledge needs an IT tool box that
matches the requirements of the expert who builds the system and supplies the knowl-
edge base. An expert system is a computer system that can emulate the decision making
ability of a human expert: the knowledge base built on an expert's concept and the
assigned IT tools constitute a computer system including databases, data processing
tools and decision-support tools (DSTs).
The Environmental Information knowledge base (ENFO, 2013) reflects the inten-
tion of the authors to help the users of the knowledge base in finding and understanding
the information and use it adequately in the course of environmental management and
in taking environmentally conscious and efficient decisions.
The target groups of ENFO cover the widest possible range of ENFO's social
groups and users: pupils, students, the general public, residents, owners of contami-
nated land, environmental officers in local government, producers, transporters and
users of chemical substances or materials containing such chemicals (such as small-
and medium-sized enterprises in industry and agriculture), and decision makers in all
areas of everyday life, especially in local administrative bodies who require support
in their everyday decision making on environmental matters. The relevant regula-
tions are often aimed at evaluating the management and technological alternatives;
however, most of them need interpretation or explanation. If there is no clear legal
background, decisions should be taken based on the assessment of the interest of the
enterprise, local environment, a region or the earth.
Good decision cannot be made when problem holders are not able to communicate
with professionals, who can give valuable advice, or provide the basic scientific expla-
nation. ENFO intends to connect problem holders with professionals via its electronic
tools. Basic scientific and engineering knowledge helps to understand the environ-
mental problems, use the correct language and terms and take decisions with regard
to chemical substances and contaminated land. Navigators and DSTs help users find
problem-specific legal advice, scientific explanations and problem-specific method-
ological and technological solutions. The hierarchically organized knowledge network
ensures that, at a certain level, the user can stop and say: from this point on I seek the
advice of a “human expert'' or a consultancy. In this case, the user will know exactly
what he needs the expert for, and he will be able to specify the task and communicate
with the expert. The database can also be used by professionals to obtain advice and
support with the help of the large amount of structured information.
2.1 The objective of the ENFO knowledge base
The objective of the ENFO Knowledge Base is to guide the user from the basic level to
concise explanations of technical/scientific knowledge on subjects such as environmen-
tal risk posed by chemical substances or the value of soil in view of the large number
of soil living organisms. The knowledge base provides support for environmental risk
management in versatile forms (glossary, databases, picture galleries, e-courses, maps,
etc.) for end users (citizens and professionals) (Gruiz, 2009).