A Methodology for Knowledge Reuse: Application in the Automatic Generation of Operational Protocols for Wastewater Treatment Plants

During the preliminary stages of many engineering design tasks, the underlying search space is unbounded and inexact. Initial decisions are made when information is incomplete and many goals are contradictory. This sort of problem appeared in Catalonia for the identification of appropriate wastewater treatment systems in small communities, as well as for proposing appropriate operational and maintenance protocols to these facilities. In this case, the Catalan Water Agency proposed to develop two Environmental Decision Support Systems (EDSS), one to support the selection of the optimal treatment (EDSS-treatment) and another one to support the definition of appropriated operational and maintenance guides (EDSSmaintenance). This paper presents a methodology for supporting the automatic generation of protocols for small wastewater treatment plants operation and maintenance (EDD-maintenance) based on the reuse of available knowledge, acquired during the development an implementation of the EDSS-treatment.