Transcript Barbara Hofer (Z_GIS, University of Salzburg): A

Scientific Applications of Online
Geoprocessing Technology – A Review
Barbara Hofer
Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS,
University of Salzburg, Austria
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Outline
Motivation
| Reach of online geoprocessing technology
Methodology | Systematic analysis of publications
Results
| Few applications in scientific context
Issues
| Community building, usability issues
Future work | Error prevention to increase usability
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Advantages of Online Geoprocessing
making
functionality
widely
available
…
reusing
existing
services
documenting
workflows
up-to-date
results
…
…
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Motivation of a Review – Technology as Keyword
 The use of GIS for monitoring and predicting urban growth in
East and West St Paul, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (Hathout
2002)
 Use of GIS for estimating potential and actual forest biomass
for continental South and Southeast Asia (Iverson et al. 1994)
 Use of GIS-based models for integrating and developing marine
fish cages within the tourism industry in Tenerife (Canary
Islands) (Perez et al. 2003)
 Modeling urban dynamics through GIS-based cellular automata
(Batty et al. 1999)
 …
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Bibliometric Analysis
Questions:
 How many applications of online geoprocessing
technology in research contexts exist?
 Which types of applications can be differentiated?
Approach:
 Bibliometric analysis using Scopus (Elsevier)
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Bibliometric Analysis cont.
Keyword set: GIS
geospatial
geoinformation
geographic information
geodata
spatial data
geographic information system
geographical information system
GIS
geoprocessing
geocomputation
spatial analysis
spatial data infrastructure
Keyword set: online
geoprocessing
e-Science
cyberinfrastructure
geoprocessing web
geospatial web
model web
web-based
Internet-based
web service
service oriented architecture
web processing service
web feature service
web map service
web coverage
service
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing
on the
Web, 3 June 2014
sensor observation service
Applications of Online Geoprocessing



Identification of
application type
Direct reference to
online geoprocessing
Assessment of scope
of article
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Categorization of Applications
Stand-alone functionality
Service platforms
Data provision services
Theme-specific platforms
Specific processing
functionality
General purpose processing
tools
Models as services
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Results
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Results (cont.)
One example for a theme specific platform:
 Dominkovics et al. (2011) support the analysis of
tuberculosis cases in Barcelona, Spain with density maps
that are produced with web-based geospatial services.
Some observations:




Thematic bundling of operations seems useful
SOA as technological principle
Not necessarily sharing of services taking place
Further adaptation of tools reported in the articles
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Results (cont.)
Example for the use of general purpose functionality:

Shook et al. (2012) create emotional heatmaps for the
topics armed conflict based on Wikipedia entries.




Data intensive visual analytics
Interpolation of data to heatmaps
The platform used is the CyberGIS platform (Wang 2010)
Research required the use of a cyberinfrastructure
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
User Perspective
“As with any deployment of information technology, it
cannot be assumed that just because tools are provided
they will be used…“ (Poore 2011, p.5510).
“…the problems of learning and membership in a
community that are critical to infrastructure development
remain” (Poore 2011, p.5514).
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Usability Studies – Views of Poore (2011)

Usability studies must consider:




Work practices
Articulations of users
Tacit knowledge
GIScience approaches need to be extended:


More than map interface studies required
Usability of all the system
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Proposed Work – Error Prevention
Stasch et al. 2014: Meaningful Spatial Prediction and
Aggregation


Formalization of operations
Extension of process profiles
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Summary

Literature-based analysis of applications of online
geoprocessing



Limited number of applications documented
Differentiation of application types
Request for usability considerations

Error prevention through feedback
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
Thank you for your attention!
Barbara Hofer
[email protected]
Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS, University of Salzburg,
Austria
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014
References
 Dominkovics, P., C. Granell, A. Pérez-Navarro, M. Casals, Á. Orcau and J.A.
Caylà 2011. Development of spatial density maps based on geoprocessing
web services: Application to tuberculosis incidence in barcelona, spain.
International Journal of Health Geographics 10.
 B. S. Poore, "Users as essential contributors to spatial
cyberinfrastructures," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of
the United States of America, vol. 108, pp. 5510-5515, 2011.
 Shook, E., K. Leetaru, G. Cao, A. Padmanabhan and S. Wang. 2012. Happy
or not: Generating topic-based emotional heatmaps for culturomics using
cybergis.
 Stasch, C., S. Scheider, E. Pebesma, W. Kuhn, 2014. Meaningful Spatial
Prediction and Aggregation. Environmental Modelling & Software, 51,
(149–165, open access).
 Wang, S. 2010. A cybergis framework for the synthesis of
cyberinfrastructure, gis, and spatial analysis. Annals of the Association of
American Geographers 100, no. 3: 535-57.
AGILE Workshop Geoprocessing on the Web, 3 June 2014