A Spatial Decision Support System for Property Valuation

May 6-

A GIS BASED SPATIAL DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR LANDSCAPE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT

Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) provides a structured approach to identifying the character and distinctiveness about the landscape. It is a tool used to identify what makes a location unique, a set of techniques and procedures used to map differences between landscapes based on their physical, cultural and historical characteristics. Although the UK has committed to assessing all of its landscapes by signing the European Landscape Convention in 2006, only 60% of coverage has been achieved. The majority of LCAs are carried out by professional environment or landscape consultancies rather than ‘in-house’. Geographical Information Systems are increasingly being used to collate and analyse data and produce character maps. This research presents a Spatial Decision Support System (LCA-SDSS) based in ArcGIS 9.3 that can be used to support decision makers in conducting a LCA. The LCA-SDSS provides a method for storing data, a model base for the assessment of Landform, Ground Type, Land Cover & Cultural attributes and a method for the user to interact with the resulting maps. Using the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) as a study area the SDSS was developed and tested, resulting in character maps for each stage of the modelling and a final characterisation map. These maps were compared to a LCA conducted by a professional environmental consultant and were found to have produced a good quality assessment as verified by the end user at the Tamar Valley AONB Partnership.Tamar Valley AONB Partnership and University of Plymouth HEIF

An intelligent solution support system for spatial modelling and decision support

‘Modelling inside GIS’ has been widely researched over the years. This paper argues that such approach lacks appropriate model reusing and management functions because it is often domain-dependent. In this paper, we propose a ‘modelling outside GIS’ approach to design a model management module that can be incorporated with GIS and other systems to perform flexible model retrieval and development. As a first step, an intelligent solution support system (subsystem) that can assist users to select and construct appropriate models for their particular application domains is developed. Some essential mechanisms and procedures involved in the developing this system are proposed and demonstrated.published_or_final_versio

Spatial Decision Support System for School Sitting

School building is a long term investment that always involves huge capital. Although school building has always been given top priority in the Malaysia Plan series, the number of existing schools is still inadequate. The present system of school planning is inefficient because it has neglected the spatial factor which is part of very important components in educational planning. Poorly planned schools will lead to obsolescence and once this happens, the schools in the area either have to be remodeled or be replaced. Despite the importance of school planning, not much information are available that deals with spatially-based school planning as a complete process. Most of them are written by planners from developed countries which have been found unsuitable for developing countries such as Malaysia because of the differences in policy and focus. Therefore there is an urgent need to develop a Spatial Decision Support System for school planning that suits the local setting. The objectives of this system are first to identify parameters for the proposed study, establish a model to optimize the school system efficiency, identify the most suitable location for a new school and then redraw the attendance boundary based on the optimization of school capacity and student distribution. To achieve this, GIS analysis is combined with other tools such as Multiple Criteria Analysis, Analytical Hierarchy Process, Location- Allocation Modeling and Gravity Model. Based on the diagnosis, three possible solutions are suggested, followed by discussions of the advantages and disadvantages of each scenario. The results generated by the system are very encouraging because it has shown that schooling system can be improved significantly while satisfying both the shortest distance constraint and also the school capacity constraint. The study has shown that this GIS-based system is able to fulfill all the objectives of this study. Through readings and research, all parameters and constraints have been identified as inputs for the system. Using these parameters, this system is able to classify schools based on the critical needs as well as identifying the most suitable region for providing new schools or relocation of the existing schools. Lastly, the system is able to show alternatives towards making the best decision by providing simulations based on many possibilities. This model also has the potential to be extended for other educational planning areas, for example the allocation of teaching personnel and the distribution of educational resources. As a conclusion, this GIS-based system, combined with educational data can be a very important tool for educational planning

An Integrated Assessment Framework for Water Resources Management: A DSS Tool and a Pilot Study Application

Decision making for the management of water resources is a complex and difficult task. This is due to the complex socio-economic system that involves a large number of interest groups pursuing multiple and conflicting objectives, within an often intricate legislative framework. Several Decision Support Systems have been developed but very few have indeed proved to be effective and truly operational. MULINO (Multisectoral, Integrated and Operational Decision Support System for Sustainable Use of Water Resources at the Catchment Scale) is a project funded under the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Research and the key action line dedicated to operational management schemes and decision support system for sustainable use of water resources. The MULINO DSS (mDSS) integrates hydrological models with multi-criteria decision methods and adopts the DPSIR (Driving Force – Pressure – State – Impact – Response) framework developed by the European Environment Agency. The DPSIR was converted from a static reporting scheme into a dynamic framework for integrated assessment modelling (IAM) and multi-criteria evaluation procedures. This paper presents the methodological framework and the intermediate results of the mDSS tool through its application in a pilot study area located in the Watershed of the Lagoon of Venice.Integrated water resources management, Spatial decision-making, Decision support system, Catchment, Environmental modelling

MULTIPLE-OBJECTIVE DECISION MAKING FOR AGROECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT

Multiple-objective decision making (MODEM) provides an effective framework for integrated resource assessment of agroecosystems. Two elements of integrated assessment are discussed and illustrated: (1) adding noneconomic objectives as constraints in an optimization problem; and (2) evaluating tradeoffs among competing objectives using the efficiency frontier for objectives. These elements are illustrated for a crop farm and watershed in northern Missouri. An interactive, spatial decision support system (ISDSS) makes the MODEM framework accessible to unsophisticated users. A conceptual ISDSS is presented that assesses the socioeconomic, environmental, and ecological consequences of alternative management plans for reducing soil erosion and nonpoint source pollution in agroecosystems. A watershed decision support system based on the ISDSS is discussed.Agribusiness,

Towards a spatial decision support system for animal traceability.

This section presents the contributions of our work to the problems of bovine traceability and contact between animals using trajectory database concepts. This section describes how to delimitate problems and how to represent animal movements as trajectories. Afterwards, the algorithms for the identification of contacts between animals are presented for the calculation of contamination probabilities. In this work we define contamination algorithms for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). FMD is a highly contagious disease that attacks all cleft-hoofed animals, mainly bovines. It occurs at all ages, regardless of sex, breed, climate, etc. The virus spreads by direct contact of animals as well as through the air, water and food.Contrato nº 43134

Spatial analysis, decision support systems (DSS) and land use design: the case-study of antique viability system in San Martino valley (Lombardy, Italy)

This paper concerns the development of a Decision Support System (DSS), which is a system able to support temporal and spatial choices about land use design, in order to project and manage the antique viability system in San Martino valley (located in Lombardy, Italy) The main purpose is providing to a project manager necessary information to help him to understand problems (in particular concerning the spatial system of viability), therefore assists him to analyze the question from different points of view. This process needs a particular informative architecture, based on a complex and relational structured system (DSS) able to produce response for the whole decision process. The DSS is interfaced with a GIS in order to manage cartography and alphanumeric files with geo-referenced data. It works on information which are supposed to be indispensable for the planners of the San Martino valley.

Geographical data management in GIS systems

By the specific data and functions the geographic information system is an indispensable tool used in urban management from the perspective of a decision support system. Processing and synthesizing information from the spatial database provides necessary indices and indicators for understanding urban situation, which in relation with analysis and simulation applications give support for a short, medium and long term urban planning, and at the same time allows useful spatial views for understanding by the urban non-specialists of the necessary spatial elements for decision-making process.GIS, spatial planning, simulation applications

Development of a Spatial Decision Support System for Land Use Planning

Land use planning and management have an obvious spatial dimension where complex models and methods of assessment are used. The use of information technologies and spatial concepts promise many benefits to planners and decision-makers in the land use planning process. However, current land use planning systems lack flexibility in accommodating changes of land use parameters. This prevents decision makers from generating alternate land use scenarios. This research aims to develop a flexible Spatial Decision Support System for Land use Planning (SDSS-LP). The SDSS-LP development lifecyc1e methodology consists of five phases, namely, planning, analysis, design, implementation and testing phases. SDSS-LP was developed in the modules by using Arc View programming language A venue and dialog designer extension. The system modules are categorized into three subsystems i.e. database management, analysis and modeling. The system permits decision-makers to view and access its own planning domain database without any constraints. Next, SDSS-LP also helps the decision-makers to manipulate and analyze spatial and attribute data so as to be able to decide on significant suitability factors. These factors will facilitate the production of alternative allocation maps that can be used to represent different planning scenario. Thus, the SDSS-LP is valuable software that can be used within the land use planning process