Abstract:
The increasing population and the ever-changing life style of the public have begun to
add to the growing solid waste problem in Sri Lanka. As a solution, Local Authorities,
NGOs, researchers and environmentalists have implemented several composting projects.
Unfortunately, most of these projects are either abandoned or operating under poor
conditions due to social, economic and technical problems encountered and none of
options have solved the solid waste management problem itself. A key issue that is
highlighted is the lack of qualified personnel (experts) to advise and assist Local
Authorities to adopt the best solid waste management practices.
Decision Support Systems and Expert Systems are favourable tools to overcome these
problems. Therefore by capturing past mistakes, weak points and considering past
experience, a user friendly Expert System called BESTCOMP was developed for better
management of solid waste composting by Pradeshiya Sabhas in Sri Lanka. This
research mainly focused on the behaviour of the physical, chemical and biological
process in composting. The model is geared towards decision making as well as
providing required expertise to solid waste composting hierarchy.
