International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 4 Issue: 3

ISSN: 2321-8169
203 -206

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Climate Change Educational Knowledge-based Expert System (CC-KBES)

Rafaat Hussein
PhD, PE
State University of New York
Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
email: allpubs@yahoo.com
Abstract:The natural inherited complexity of climate change has surpassed the state of technologies as can be attested by its unpredictability. To
meet the future climate indisputablechallenges, the next generation of scientists, engineers, technologists, and leaders must have the knowledge
and understanding of the pertinent issues, be properly educated before playing roles about the future direction. This step is essential for the world
future educational pipeline. To this end, this paper introduces the concept of knowledge-based expert system for climate change. The system is
user friendly and can be used by teachers to prepare their lessons; and by the learners to learn the critical issues, do projects, and be armored with
the qualifications for a career in this field.
Keywords:Climate change, computer toolkits, educational skills, global warming, knowledge-based expert system, simulation and modeling.

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I.

INTRODUCTION

The adverse impacts of climate change areglowing and

will not go away in the foreseeable future. In addition,
humans can no longer deny or ignorethese changes in each
day scientific, technological, and political practices.
To elaborate, the Earths average temperature rose to its
highest level in the past four centuries with the fastest rise in
a thousand years.In fact, 2015 was the warmest year ever on
record. The sea levelhas risen between four and eight inches
in the past century and is projected to continue rising for
another one.Globally,100 million people live within three
feet of sea level, thus are exposed to future
displacement.Hurricanes and tropical storms became more
intense, are occurring more frequent and lasting longer than
before, unleashing extreme winds, and causing irreversible
damages to coastal ecosystems.Furthermore, the climate
change is intensifying the circulation of fresh water above
and below the surface of the Earth causing drought and
floods to occur more frequent with devastating blows to
agriculture, water supply andhuman health. Thisparticular
change increases thelikelihood of forest fires, causes early
snowmelts, long summers, and prolonged spring and
summer temperatures. The statistics indicate that the US fire
frequency was increased by 400 percent and the amount of
land burned was increased by 650 percent since 1970.From
a different perspective, at least one-fourth of Earths species
are expected to extinct in less than two decades. The list of
species includes polar bears, Baltimore oriole, black-capped
chickadee of Massachusetts, and the American goldfinch of
Iowa to name some examples.Vegetation shifts are also on
the rise forcing trees and plants around the world to move
toward Polar Regions and up mountain slopes.
II.

KNOWLEDGE BASED EXPERT SYSTEM

a. General
In general, a knowledge-based system uses knowledge to
reason with it. In this paper, some of the available climate
change facts are adopted for the development of the concept
of an expert system that emulates the experienced

practitioners from whom the knowledge is sought. By using

this type of artificial intelligence, one could make decisions
or provoke an array of climate change problems.
The term knowledge-based expert system is known in
the literature for a long time and is adopted in this paper
because of itsdesirableattributes such as
Knowledge domain.
Specialization for a particular domain.
Adaptability for heuristic approach.
Valuable modular platforms for educational tools.
Effectiveness forthe scientific education.
Strengthening the research abilities and skills.
Nurturing thinkingand actionoriented education.
Suitability for educational projects that involve
assumptions and scenarios.
Abilities to translate climate scenarios into particular
focuses such as temperature, snow, and precipitation.
Opportunities forscientific innovation.
A graphical ability for what if scenarios.
Audio-visualcapabilities to enhance the learning
atmosphere and the preparation of delivery materials.
Unlike the traditional knowledge base systems, our
development does not seek descriptions about issues,
analyze data to draw conclusions or give advice, and explain
its reasoning.
b. Components
Some of the climate change knowledge-based expert
system presented in this paper include
User friendly interface.
Recent information.
Data of interest to the system.
The presented knowledge-based expert system revolves
around a number of effective educational features such as
interactive, easy-to-use, runs on desktop/laptop computers
or mobile devices for quick real-time analysis, and
scientifically rigorous tools that help the users understand
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International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 4 Issue: 3

ISSN: 2321-8169
203 -206

______________________________________________________________________________________
how to address the complex, interconnected challenges
about climate change. It comes with a modular architecture
that enables everyone to custom fit its application to the
particular needs in classroom and beyond.

Figure 1. A Screenshot of the Educational CC-KBES

As shown in Figure 1, CC-KBES includes these modules:
Learn the basics
Climate change
Do you know
See impacts
Videos
Seeing is believing
What does it mean?
Act
Take a quiz
Make a difference
Think like a scientist

Figure 2. A Screenshot of the Temperature in NYS

Learn the basics: do you know

Resources center
Glossary
Calculators
The fun zone
Rip rap
Listening
Figure 3. A Screenshot fromdo you know module
Learn the basics: climate
This module uses climate datarecords according to the
given the user-chosen time length for the output.It can be
used to discusspast climate variations, the different factors
that influence climate, and test various scenarios.Figure 2
shows a typical screen for the temperature in NYS. Similar
screens are available for precipitation and snow.

This module explains the differences between some of the

terms used in this field such as climate vs. weather; climate
change vs. global warming, and the climate system. Figure 3
shows a typical screen shot of the module. The module can
be used to learn about the true meaning of terminologies and
prepare projects assigned in science courses.

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IJRITCC | March 2016, Available @ http://www.ijritcc.org

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International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 4 Issue: 3

ISSN: 2321-8169
203 -206

______________________________________________________________________________________
See the impacts: videos

Act

Figure 7. A Screenshot from Act module

Figure 4. A Screenshot from the videos module
The learners can watch a wide perspectives of climate
change as shown in Figure 4. The list includes the arctic ice,
sea level rise, plants, wildlife to name some examples. This
module is an effective tool for the realization of the
adversary impacts of climate change on the earth and what
depend on it to survive. It is also an approach to capture to
the fullest possible extent the full spectrum of a scientific
focus assigned to the learners for a project.
See the impacts: seeing is believing

Figure 5. A Screenshot from seeing is believing module

There are thirty items covered by this module that show
the adverse impacts of climate change on ice melt, sea level,
flooding, drought, and lakes in various regions in the world.
This module can be used in conjunction with others to
develop scenarios or models to predict future climate. For
example, the learners could integrate the changes the
temperature record from first module presented in this
paper.
See the impacts: what it means

Figure 6. A Screenshot from what it means module

This module is an alternative approach to learn the
changes over time created by climate change. It covers
Carbone dioxide, global temperature, arctic ice, and sea
level. Each change is provided with a narrative to depict
critical pertinent observation and facts. The learners can use
this module to quantify changes for modeling particular
facets of climate change at a regional, national, or
international level.

This module encompasses three submodules that inspire

the learners with a wide range of ideas to motivate them to
engage in solving climate change challenges. The first submodule provides an opportunity for the learners to probe the
level of understanding of climate change. A 10-question
interactive multiple choice quiz is provided on global
temperature, glaciers and ice, seal level rise, and climate
change. Once any of the quizzes is completed, the score is
revealed. In this way, the learners learn about the mistakes or
misunderstanding and can then retake the quiz. The second
sub-module inspire the learners with ideas for actions at
home, school, community, or elsewhere. The list include
topics such as reading, electricity, transportation, planting
trees, recycling, and natural resources. The third sub-module
suggests projects for the learners to experiment with the
challenges of climate change such as the human health,
agriculture and forests, and seasonal recreation. It should be
noted that each of the sub-module includes explanations,
illustrations, cause-effect, etc.
Resources center, Glossary, and Calculators

Figure 8. A Screenshot from Resources and Glossary modules

The resources and glossary modules are designed as a
library for the learners to find the technical and scientific
literature they need, and the definitions of what they
encounter in reading the literature. The contents of the first
module are categorized from the climate change perspective;
e.g. adaptation, mitigation, etc. The second module is
organized in alphabetic order to facilitate using it. The
climate based calculators module use a number of
applications to quantify GHG emissions, inventory, and
carbon footprint.
This module also provides access to a number of
climate change based calculators that can be used in
scientific projects. The learners can use these tools to
understand the climate change science and develop
inventory estimatesthus suggest mitigation decisions about,
for example, GHG emissions from sources such as
electricity,
vehicles,
solid
waste
disposed
as
papers/plastic/metal containers, wastewater, etc. The
estimates are performed for carbon dioxide, methane,
nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbon emissions. The total
emissions, and the total potential emission reduction are
calculated. Suggestions on ways to reduce emissions by
source and sub-source are also calculated.
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IJRITCC | March 2016, Available @ http://www.ijritcc.org

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International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 4 Issue: 3

ISSN: 2321-8169
203 -206

______________________________________________________________________________________
Fun zone
In the current digital world, learners learn best when
their sensory experiences are stimulated. In general, the goal
of audio-visual aids is to forge an effectiveeducation process
bringing the real world into the classroom. In this way
teachers can present simple and easy to understand lessons.
To this end, the CC-KBSincludes a module that provides
songs and videos specifically developed for climate change.
They are interactive and can be used for effective teachinglearning process, prepare educational materials, stimulate
the learner's curiosity and attract his/her attention, and
promote interests for careers in climate change.
III.

CONCLUSIONS

[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]

https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/
http://www.globalchange.gov/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/climate-change
https://www.climate.gov/
http://www.state.gov/e/oes/climate/
http://ers.usda.gov/topics/
http://www.usgs.gov/climate_landuse/
http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/612710

https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/climate/
http://www.un.org/climatechange/
http://www.ipcc.ch/
http://www.unep.org/pdf/UNEP_Profile/Climate_change.pdf
http://www.esa.int/esapub/bulletin/bulletin129/bul129a_liebig.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change

The earth and all of its inhabitants can no longer deny or

ignore the unprecedented future challenges that revolve
around the climate change. Only in history archives, one
could find the climate change as a distant prospect and its
myriads of debates and speculations. The climate change
became a reality and our planet and each living thing on it
are indisputably vulnerable to its adverse impacts that were
unimaginable not a long time ago, such as the more frequent
and intense extreme weather events, sea level rise, and warm
winters. The logic question is who will tackle and meet
these challenges? The logic answer is the future world
generation of scientists, engineers, technologists, policy
makers, and in general each human. Education is one of the
vehicles that can be utilized to properly equip that
generation with the necessary knowledge and skills for that
goal.
This paper presents a novel tool in reply to the calls for
effective climate change strategic educational approach. It
presented how the concept of knowledge-based expert
systems rendered a user friendly modular mosaic, named
CC-KBES, that can easily be applied to armor the learners
with the knowledge and skills that will enable them to steer
the world away from the destructive pathway of climate
change.
CC-KBES includes five modules: Learn the basics
(climate change and Do you know), see impacts (videos,
seeing is believing, and what does it mean?), act (take a
quiz, make a difference, and think like a scientist), resources
center (glossary and calculators), and the fun zone. All the
module and sub-modules are interactive, require no
computer skills, provide screen hints, and follow what the
literature encompasses on climate change education. In
summary, CC-KBES introduced a fresh direction for
teachers to bring the real climate change and its inherited
complexity to the classroom, and to the learners to
understand the breadth and depth of the real issues that
surround future climate change.
REFERENCES
The Internet has a boundless number of resources about
climate change. At the time of preparing this paper,
140,000,000 links were found in less than 0.5 second.
However, the following list includes a selected number of
sources in this area without any order of priority
[1]

http://climate.nasa.gov/
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