A knowledge-based problem solving method in GIS application

Model design for theme analysis is one of the biggest challenges in GIS. Many real applications in GIS require functioning not only in data management and visualization, but also in analysis and decision-making. Confronted with an application of planning a new metro line in a city, a typical GIS is unable to accomplish the task in the absence of human experts or artificial intelligence technologies. Apart from being models for analyzing in different themes, some applications are also instances of problem solving in AI. Therefore, in order to strengthen its ability in automatic analysis, many theories and technologies from AI can be embedded in the GIS. In this paper, a state space is defined to formalize the metro line planning problem. By utilizing the defined state evaluation function, knowledge-based rules and strategies, a heuristic searching method is developed to optimize the solutions iteratively. Experiments are implemented to illuminate the validity of this AI-enhanced automatic analysis model of GIS.