An Ontology-Driven Framework and Web Portal for Spatial Decision Support

Numerous systems and tools have been developed for spatial decision support (SDS), but they generally suffer from a lack of re-usability, inconsistent terminology, and weak conceptualization. We introduce a collaborative effort by the SDS Consortium to build a SDS knowledge portal. We present the formal representation of knowledge about SDS, the various ontologies captured and made accessible by the portal, and the processes used to create them. We describe the portal in action, and the ways in which users can search, browse, and make use of its content. Finally, we discuss the lessons learned from this effort, and future development directions. Our work demonstrates how ontologies and semantic technologies can support the documentation and retrieval of dynamic knowledge in GIScience by offering flexible schemata instead of fixed data structures.