Title: A distributed open source web-application for spatial multi-criteria evaluation for decision support systems infrastructure

Authors: Luc Boerboom; Özgün Oskay Alan

Addresses: Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands ' Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

Abstract: Spatial data availability on internet or intranet rapidly increases. Laymen use this data through applications such as Google Maps, Google Earth and Virtual Earth. Relatively new standards allow interoperable use for publication, sharing and calculation of spatial data. We discuss the opportunities that new spatial and multi-criteria decision analysis web service technologies and standards offer in combination with technology to distribute computing and analysis. We report of the architecture and the first prototype of the open source Distributed Spatial Multi-Criteria Evaluation (D-SMCE) web application. It is extensible by using OSGi technology for modularity and different web-services from spatial domains, such as OGC web mapping, web feature and web processing services, and non-spatial domains, such as Decision Deck. Distributed SMCE is a framework and an application. The theoretical context shows how spatial planning and decision support systems can be understood to evolve, to relate practice of distributed evaluation with standards of D-SMCE.

Keywords: distributed spatial multicriteria evaluation; D-SMCE; spatial planning; decision support systems; DSS infrastructure; OSGi; decision deck; XMCDA; OGC web services; standards; internet; open source web applications; interoperability; spatial data.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCDM.2013.053729

International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making, 2013 Vol.3 No.2/3, pp.114 - 128

Received: 19 Jan 2012
Accepted: 10 Jul 2012
Published online: 29 Jan 2014 *

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