Knowledge Acquisition and Risk Analysis in Material Recovery Facilities by a Virtual Team

A knowledge acquisition process that has been implemented by a virtual team for the development of a knowledge based early warning system in Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) operations will be presented. During the process, hazard and risk analysis techniques have been used extensively. In this paper emphasis will be given on the: a) activities and workflow, b) communication methods and tools used, c) the model of collaboration The result was to acquire and codify the complicated picture of the events, which are acting as triggering mechanisms to a number of operational problems, incidents and accidents during MRFs operations. 1 This work has been supported mainly by the EU 5 FP project ADVISES RTN (Contract No HPRN –CT –2002-00288) and by the Hellenic Operational Programme for Education and Initial Vocational Training PYTHAGORAS II. During the last stages this work has been supported by the Marie Curie Fellowships for the Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) Grand No MTKD-CT-2006-04563. Information Technologies in Environmental Engineering (ITEE2007), Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, March 29 30, Germany, pp 333-341.