Investigation of public's perception towards rural sustainable development based on a two-level expert system

Authors:
Y. P. Cai;G. H. Huang;Z. F. Yang;W. Sun;B. Chen
Affiliations:
Environmental Systems Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2;Environmental Systems Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2 and Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Science, Beijing Normal ...;State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;Environmental Systems Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2;Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University, St. John's, NL, Canada A1B 3X5
Venue:
Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal
Year:
2009

Citing 4
Cited 1

Towards an analysis and classification of approaches to knowledge acquisition from examination of textual metaphor

Knowledge Acquisition
An optimization-model-based interactive decision support system for regional energy management systems planning under uncertainty

Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal
An architecture for adaptive intelligent systems

Artificial Intelligence
Development of an expert system for tackling the public's perception to climate-change impacts on petroleum industry

Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal

Development of a web-based decision support system for supporting integrated water resources management in Daegu city, South Korea

Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal

Quantified Score

Hi-index	12.05

Visualization

Abstract

Sustainable development is of great significance in rural areas of China, which are under coupled pressures of poverty reduction, environmental protection and economic development. In these areas, agriculture is the primary sector in supporting their economies, where a number of the relevant production and processing practices cause many adverse impacts on environment and ecosystem. This poses many challenges for decision makers in formulating sustainable development strategies without invoking potential controversies or objections from the public. In this study, a two-level expert system (TES) for facilitating the investigation of public's perception towards sustainable development in rural areas was developed. Interactive relationships among objectives of socio-economic development and environmental protection, as well as the related policy implications and public responses, were comprehensively examined and incorporated within TES. A two-level system was particularly adopted for facilitating participation of various stakeholders, including decision makers and farmers. The Yongxin County of the Shanjianghu Region in Jiangxi Province, China was selected to demonstrate the applicability of the developed TES. A series of questionnaire surveys were conducted both for acquiring knowledge about the interrelationships among sustainable development, agricultural production, poverty reduction and environmental protection. Public's perception towards various system components of rural sustainable development were efficiently acquired and analyzed. The results indicated that sustainable development would be very significant on rural areas in China. Also, public awareness to the concept and profile of rural sustainable development was still at a low level, especially for farmers. The developed TES can be not only used for acquiring knowledge of sustainable development, but also providing basic information for the formulation of relevant policies and strategies in rural areas of China.