A review of some of the content and some of the references for the paper: Flexible Support for Spatial Decision Making Shan Gao, John Paynter, and David Sundaram Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences – 2004

1. SYSTEMS INTEGRATION SYS5160 Instructor: Ali Abbas Term Project: Flexible Support for Spatial Decision-Making By: Mohamed Ebada & Peter Timusk Date: February 8 th 2008

2. Flexible Spatial Decision Making Support Systems: the background to the paper

3. The paper selected as a base for the project is: Flexible Support for Spatial Decision Making Shan Gao, John Paynter, and David Sundaram Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences – 2004

4. We take the approach of a literature review by presenting tonight a brief summary of the references that the authors used in their paper. We tie in structures we have looked at in the engineering life cycle but focus on the structures of the processes that the authors use for their decision making support system. In particular, we trace the roots of the structures they used. We try to answer why did the authors use the structure(s) they did and where did they get their ideas, concepts and motivations.

5. We also cover a longer version of the author’s paper we found that was a whole book chapter at the end of this presentation. That presentation will present more examples of their decision making system at work. Here will offer our critique and suggestions for how to now improve their system even further. We can see that the authors developed existing theory and moved from this to where they arrived. Now the references ---->

7. [1] Densham, P. J. (1991). Spatial Decision Support Systems in: Maguire, D.J., Goodchild, M.F. und Rhind, D.W. (Ed.): Geographical Information Systems: Principles and Applications. Longman, Burnt Mill (UK), pp. 403-412.

14. [2] Geoffrion, A.M. (1987). An Introduction to Structured Modelling. Management Science 33(5): 547-588. Continued. The authors evaluate the problems with model based software based to a large extent on the criteria that Geoffrion sets for a modeling software for structured modeling. Here are his eight criteria written in 1987. a) A rigorous and coherent frame work for modeling… b)Independence of model representation and model solution,… c)Sufficient generality… d)Usefulness… e)representational independence f) Desktop implementation g) Integrated facilities h) Immediate expression evaluation in the tradition of desktop spreadsheet software. p. 549

15. a) Rigorous A rigorous and coherent frame work for modeling based on a single model representation format suitable for managerial communication, mathematical use, and direct computer execution

16. b) Independence independence of model representation and model solution, with model interface standards to facilitate building a library of models and easily accessed solvers for retrieval, systems of simultaneous equations, optimization, and other important manipulations.

17. c) generality Sufficient generality to encompass most of the modeling paradigms that MS/OR and kindred model-based fields have developed for organizing the complexity of reality ( activity analysis, decision trees, flow networks, graphs, markov chains, queuing systems.

18. d) Usefulness Usefulness for most phases of the entire life-cycle associated with model-based work.

19. e) representational independence representational independence of general model structure and detailed data needed to describe specific model instances

20. f) Desktop implementation Desktop implementation with a modern users interface (e.g., visually interactive, directly manipulative, syntactically humane, and with liberal use of graphics and tables)‏

21. g) Integrated facilities Integrated facilities for data management and ad hoc query in the tradition of database systems

22. h) Immediate expression Immediate expression evaluation in the tradition of desktop spreadsheet software.

23. [3] Malczewski, J. (1998). Spatial Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in Thill, J-C (Ed.): Spatial Multi-Criteria Decision-making and Analysis: A Geographic Information Sciences Approach. Brookfield, Ashgate: pp. 11-48. This reference is to the beginning of a book where the book covers data representation of a GIS. They do not reference the entire book. Later chapters cover spatial multi-criteria decision making but for this presentation we will not look deeply at this book. The later chapters have a taxonomy of decision support systems such as the taxonomy used by our authors. Suffice it to say that this book is also about the same problem area but it seems the authors have only used the beginning of this reference where basic GIS and problems solving with GIS are introduced.

24. [4] Moloney, T., Lea A.C. and Kowalchek, C. (1993). Manufacturing and Packaged Goods in Profiting from a Geographical Information System, GIS World Books Inc, Fort Collins.

26. [5] Peterson, K. (1998). Development of Spatial Decision Support Systems for Residential Real Estate. Journal of Housing Research 9(1): Fannie Mae Foundation. The IT background paper with justifications for object oriented programming and also matching Geoffrion for arguments for flexible systems and decision support systems that have multiple applications. Specifically in a real estate journal We will look at this paper a little more but not cover the technical computer details.

29. [7] Simon, H.A. (1960). The New Science of Management Decision . New York, Harper and Row. Pioneer in automation and decision making. Early operations research.We did find this book yet. We may include it in our written report. Other books he wrote suggested the new computer age was going to help support decision making. French available translation in Library.

30. Gao, S and Sundaram, D. Flexible Spatial Decision-Making and Support : Processes and Systems in Hilton, B. N. ed. Emerging Spatial Information Systems and Applications, Idea Group, Hershey, PA .: pp. 153-183. A longer version of the paper as a chapter in a book.

34. Design of a running track The two alternative paths for running event

35. Spatial layer manager

36. Spatial layers (toilet and drink point layer)‏

37. Implementation of spatial modeling

41. Purchase of a house Simple spatial scenario creation

42. Simple non-spatial scenario creation

43. Integration of non-spatial with spatial scenarios

44. Integration of spatial with non-spatial scenarios

45. Multi-attribute spatial scenario creation

46. Multi-criteria spatial scenarios

48. Trace the spread of a disease Case occurrences and population density

49. Time series presentation of SARS spread period I

50. Time series presentation of SARS spread 2

51. Infected buildings, school, and others

54. Conclusion The authors used a number of sources to identify a problem, become familiar with the problems domain, find recommended solutions within that domain, look at a long term view of the problem with many years of research span. Therefore they “stood on the shoulders of giants” to paraphrase Einstein.

55. References: [1] Densham, P. J. (1991). “Spatial Decision Support Systems” in: Maguire, D.J., Goodchild, M.F. und Rhind, D.W. (Ed.): Geographical Information Systems: Principles and Applications. Longman, Burnt Mill (UK), pp. 403-412. [2] Geoffrion, A.M. (1987). “An Introduction to Structured Modelling”. Management Science 33(5): 547-588. [3] Malczewski, J. (1998). “Spatial Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis” in Thill, J-C (Ed.): Spatial Multi-Criteria Decision-making and Analysis: A Geographic Information Sciences Approach. Brookfield, Ashgate: pp. 11 48. [4] Moloney, T., Lea A.C. and Kowalchek, C. (1993). Manufacturing and Packaged Goods in Profiting from a Geographical Information System, GIS World Books Inc, Fort Collins. [5] Peterson, K. (1998). “Development of Spatial Decision Support Systems for Residential Real Estate”. Journal of Housing Research 9(1): Fannie Mae Foundation. [6] Gao, S and Sundaram, D. Flexible Spatial Decision-Making and Support : Processes and Systems in Hilton, B. N. ed. Emerging Spatial Information Systems and Applications, Idea Group, Hershey, PA .: pp. 153-183. [7] Simon, H.A. (1960). The New Science of Management Decision. New York, Harper and Row. Graphics on Slide 2 from wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_systems > (accessed February, 2008)‏

56. The end fini Questions?