Engineering Postgraduate Conference (EPC) 2008 DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXPERT SYSTEM TO MINIMISE RIVER POLLUTION DURING HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES Ibrahiem Abdul Razak Alani, Noor Ezlin Ahmad Basri, Riza Atiq and Amirudden Ismail Department of Civil and Structural Engineering National University of Malaysia, Malaysia. ABSTRACT In this paper, a concise review on the history and application of artificial intelligence and expert system is presented. A review of the effect of highway construction on the adjacent water bodies is also presented. The various considerations that must be dealt with in order to ensure a sound and systematic environment for expert system development are also presented. The development of an expert system that will give advices on how to mitigate the effect oh highway construction on the water bodies is also taken into consideration in this paper. Keyword: Expert system, highway construction, geographic information system (GIS) INTRODUCTION Highway construction and associated grading activities typically are initiated with a clearing and grubbing phases in which vegetation and other naturally occurring soil stabilizing materials are removed from the construction site. The surface areas and slopes created by excavation or embankments are exposed to the erosive forces of wind and rain until the earthwork is completed and the grassy vegetation is restored or the surface is artificially stabilized. There are so many kinds of mitigation measures used so as to reduce the impact of highway construction generated pollution such as, erosion control and sediment control or source management methods. Slope covering techniques include temporary and permanent vegetation establishment, plastic sheeting, straw and wood fiber mulches, matting, netting, chemical stabilizers, or some combination of the above. Sediment control may be considered as the second line of defense which includes sedimentation ponds, post-sedimentation pond devices, and silt or sediment barriers (Hittman Associates, Inc., 1976). Highway construction engineers must make judgments based on experience acquired over many years for the elimination/reduction of the effect of highway construction on the adjacent water bodies. Gaining this experience can be difficult because of the time and wide range of knowledge involved. As a result, this type of problem is suitable for an expert system type approach (Zhu