HOW THE SEMANTIC WEB CAN HELP IMPROVE KNOWLEDGE CAPITALIZATION IN
ROAD SAFETY ANALYSIS?
Nicole TOURIGNY, Ph.D. and Laurence CAPUS, Ph.D.
Département d'informatique et de génie logiciel
Laboratoire des Systèmes Intelligents LSI-ERICAE
Pavillon Pouliot
Université Laval
Cité universitaire, Québec, Canada, G1K 7P4
{nicole.tourigny, laurence.capus}@ift.ulaval.ca
KEYWORDS
Semantic Web, road safety analysis, electronic portal,
knowledge capitalization, knowledge system, ontology
ABSTRACT
An intelligent portal in road safety analysis can be seen
as a way of capitalizing knowledge in this domain, tools to
access it and reason with it. It means that the portal should
have some semantic Web capabilities in order to access the
right knowledge or infer it when solving problems or
helping experts in this process. During the past, we have
developed some solutions in order to help experts and user
analysts access appropriate knowledge to solve problems in
road safety analysis. In this communication, we recall these
solutions and explain how an electronic portal with
semantic Web capabilities can enrich them. We examine
some of the past proposed solutions: second generation
rule-based system, case-based system, corporate memory,
and ontology. After having described the limitations of
those solutions in the actual context, we propose a new
approach. We show how an electronic portal with semantic
Web capabilities can enhance each individual solution
offered to experts and users to help them achieve their
tasks.
INTRODUCTION
From our experience in developing knowledge systems
in road safety analysis, we came to the conclusion that the
solution to a given problem is rarely unique. Experts asked
to solve a same problem hardly come to a consensus on the
method used and the solution produced. Indeed, many
criteria have to be considered when solving a problem, and
among them the body of general rules established by and
adapted to the whole community, the own experience of
each expert analyst, the combined experience of the expert
analysts working together to solve problems. In this
context, a useful software tool should be able to propose
several methods and solutions in order to satisfy various
needs in solving problems. This means a system offering
multiple solutions. One alternative when designing this
kind of system lies on the concept of intelligent electronic
portal. Such a portal can make available several kinds of
tools: rule-based systems to reason by established rules,
case-based systems to solve problems by reasoning from
known cases, intelligent systems to search in databases,
knowledge bases, electronic files, etc.
An intelligent portal in road safety analysis can be seen
as a way of capitalizing knowledge in this domain, tools to
access it and reason with it. It means that the portal should
have some semantic Web capabilities in order to access the
right knowledge or infer it when solving problems or
helping experts in this process. During the past, we have
developed some solutions in order to help experts and user
analysts access appropriate knowledge to solve problems in
road safety analysis. The contribution of the present paper
is to propose a new approach with electronic portal for the
road safety analysis domain. Among the advantages, this
approach makes the research of solutions more complete
and the interactions easier. The objectives of the
communication are to recall these solutions and explain
how an electronic portal with semantic Web capabilities
can enrich them. We examine in more detail some of the
proposed solutions: second generation rule-based system,
case-based system, corporate memory, and ontology. After
having described the limitations of those solutions in the
actual context, we show how an electronic portal with
semantic Web capabilities can enhance each individual
solution offered to experts and users to help them achieve
their tasks.
ROAD SAFETY ANALYSIS: CONTEXT,
PROBLEMS AND PAST SOLUTIONS
In recent years, all across the world, numerous
governments have established programs in order to
improve road safety. Quebec is no exception. In this
context, we have developed some solutions in road safety
analysis for the Ministère des Transports du Québec.....