Spatial Decision Support Portal- Presented at AAG 2010

SDS Knowledge Portal

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Superior Cronese DWMA

Western Expansion Area

Fort IrwinNTC

! Observation Points

# Transect Start Points

Sand-Gravel

Rocky

Sandy Wash

Desert Pavement

Erosional Highlands

Aeolian Sand

Playa

Rocky Wash

Inselberg

Sand Sheet

SUPERIOR-CRONESE

Geomorphology Western Expansion Area

´0 2 4 6 81Miles

Complexities of spatial decision makingSpatial decision making faces various decision complexities such as

• Spatial nature and temporal development of phenomena and processes;

• Complex multi-dimensional and heterogeneous data describing decision situations;

• Large or extremely large data sets that include data in numerical, map, image, text, and other forms;

• Large number of available alternatives or a need to generate decision alternatives "on the fly" according to the changing situation;

• Multiple participants with different and often conflicting interests;

• Multiple categories of knowledge involved, including expert knowledge and layman knowledge.

http://geoanalytics.net/VisA-SDS-2006/

Definition of Spatial Decision Support (SDS)

Spatial decision support is the computational or informational assistance for making better informed decisions about problems with a geographic or spatial component. This support assists with the development, evaluation and selection of proper policies, plans, scenarios, projects, interventions, or solution strategies.

Spatial Decision Support Consortium, 2008

Body of Knowledge in SDS

Status of the field of SDS• Active field of research and practice• Vast amount of information/knowledge on spatial decision support • Countless publications on decision process, methods, etc.• Large numbers of SDS resources (e.g. tools) developed for all kinds

of applications, many for specific project needs

The Need• Systematic organization/presentation of the body of knowledge in

SDS• Easy access of SDS resources and understanding of their

functionalities Need for Spatial Decision Support Knowledge Portal

Objectives

• Identify the structure underlying the body of knowledge on SDS, e.g.

• Common workflows during decision making process• Common set of methods associated with specific steps of these

workflows during a decision process• Tools that implement a particular method

• Organize/structure the body of knowledge in SDS on the Portal• Establish a standardized terminology within a user community• Facilitate access of SDS Resources• Help improve the quality of decision making


Approach

Develop a common organizational conceptual framework– using ontologies, containing

• SDS related concepts, organized into • Hierarchies/graphs, with each concept defined by

• Name, synonyms, acronyms/abbreviations ( standard vocabulary)

• Description,• Set of formally defined attributes• Set of formally defined relations to other concepts

The content of the SDS Portal is formalized it can be queried easily


KnowledgePortal

- User accessing knowledge about SDS, learning about decision process, methods, etc.

ResourcePortal

- User seeking resource info: tools, models, data sources, case studs, literature, etc

SolutionPortal

- User seeking resource recommendations for their specific decision problem solution

Incremental development of the SDS portal


• Establishment of the SDS Consortium

• Developed a conceptual framework for the body of knowledge in SDS

• Systematically classified various SDS resources

• Established a standard set of terms

• Developed the SDS Knowledge Portal

• Public release in April 2009• 2 incremental new releases

since then, with one coming up soon

Current status of the SDS Knowledge Portal

The SDS Conceptual framework includes > 800 concepts with natural language definition as well as formally defined logical relations among the concepts, describing

• Spatial decision problem types

• Decision contexts• Knowledge domains and

application domains• Decision process phase

and steps• Methods and techniques• Various resources

including tools and models, data sources, case studies, etc.


• ~ 100 methods and techniques

• > 80 SDS tools and models

• > 20 data sources• > 20 data models• 8 decision process

workflow templates• > 20 case studies• > 600 literature

references• > 40 related

websites


The conceptual framework is coded in description logic (OWL web ontology language):

• Flexible enough for capturing the hierarchical as well as associative relations among concepts

• Rigorous enough for automatic consistency checking of the conceptual framework• Enables semantic query with inferencing to derive implicit knowledge

The way information is organized on the Portal by ontologies facilitates information retrieval on the Portal. The user can :

• Browse the conceptual hierarchy• Follow the hierarchical structure in the ontologies• Follow the relation links from concept to concept

• Search for a concept in the ontologies• Browse resources (literature, SDS tools and models, case studies, data

sources, data models, etc.) Multiple ways of browsing, e.g. for tools:• Browse by name• Browse by decision problem types• Browse by decision process steps• Browse by application domain• Browse by knowledge domain• Etc.

• Search tools or case studies with multiple search criteria (concept search)

• Search literature – conventional bibliographical and full text keyword search, as well concept search.


• Further addition to the Portal content, especially in the areas of• Decision process workflows• Relationship between decision problem types and methods• Collaboration decision making methods and tools• SDS resources

• Supporting users in solving their decision problems:• Include more relevant SDS resources• Improve browse/search functionality on the Portal for solution

resources• Portal makes recommendation on solution resources• User case studies inform the Portal development

• Work towards tools/models interoperability

Ongoing research on SDS Knowledge Portal


• Supporting the user in solving their decision problems:• Include more relevant SDS resources• Improve browse/search functionality on the Portal for solution

resources• Portal makes recommendation on solution resources• Clients case studies inform the Portal development



User inputFrom reasoning

User input information about their specific decision problem

The Portal runs an inferences engine based on

• Existing information on the Portal

• A set of inferencing rules (implemented with SPARQL)

The portal derives a subset of SDS resources that may be applicable for the user’s decision problem, and recommend them to the user.


• Supporting the user in solving their decision problems:• Include more relevant SDS resources• Improve browse/search functionality on the Portal for solution

resources• Portal makes recommendation on solution resources• Clients case studies inform the Portal development



More efforts towards promoting tools interoperability/chaining

The tools now have finer grained definitions in terms of: The type of decision problems they address The steps/tasks during the decision process they

support The knowledge domains they model The modeling/calculation method they implement The application domain they are used in As well as other properties related to their

analysis scale, input/output requirements, systems requirement, and other general descriptions

Nathan StroutNaicong Li

Redlands InstituteUniversity of Redlands

[email protected] [email protected]

http://www.spatial.redlands.edu/sds http://www.spatial.redlands.edu/redlandsinstitute

Questions?

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.spatial.redlands.edu/sds

http://www.spatial.redlands.edu/sds

http://www.spatial.redlands.edu/redlandsinstitute

Spatial Decision Support Portal- Presented at AAG 2010

Technology

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