COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING

Abstract

Even though the first publication in the area of fuzzy set theory (FST)—one of the ingredients of computational intelligence (CI)—appeared in 1965, the development of this theory for almost 20 years remained in the academic realm. Almost all basic concepts, theories, and methods were, however, developed during this period. Fuzzy control opened the gate to real applications for FST. Particularly in Japan, the applications of the fuzzy control principle in consumer goods made FST known in the public and made it commercially interesting for industry. This led to two developments: because the development of fuzzy applicational systems had to be efficient, fuzzy CASE tools and expert system shells were developed, making FST into fuzzy technology. The success in Japan could draw the attention of the media and started—first in Germany—the “fuzzy booms,” which led to an unprecedented growth in publications, university teaching, and other industrial applications in many countries. Around 1993, FST, neural nets, and evolutionary computing joined forces and were soon considered to be one area called soft computing, or CI. Applications in engineering as well as in management became very numerous. One of the areas in which CI is increasingly applied is environmental engineering, planning or science. The character of CI—particularly of FST—is described and real and potential applications of CI in this area are discussed.