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In MethodsX

Learning from past experiences is essential for the adoption of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). There is a growing number of knowledge repositories sharing the experience of NBS projects implemented worldwide. These repositories provide access to a large amount of information, however, acquiring knowledge from them remains a challenge. This paper outlines the technical details of the NBS Case-Based System (NBS-CBS), an expert system that facilitates knowledge acquisition from an NBS case repository. The NBS-CBS is a hybrid system integrating a black-box Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with a white-box Case-Based Reasoning model. The system involves:•a repository that stores the information of past NBS projects, and an input collection component, guiding the collection and encoding of the user's inputs;•a classifier that predicts solutions (i.e., generates a hypothesis), based on user input (target case), drawing on a pre-trained ANN model to guide the case retrieval, and a case retrieval engine that identifies cases similar to the target case;•a case adaption and retainment process in which the user assesses the provided recommendations and retains the solved problem as a new case in the repository.

Sarabi Shahryar, Han Qi, de Vries Bauke, Romme A Georges L

2023

Artificial intelligence, Expert system, Hybrid expert system integrating a black-box Artificial Neural Network(ANN) with a white-box Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) model, Knowledge acquisition, Nature-based solutions (NBS), case-based reasoning