A framework on task configuration and execution for distributed geographical simulation

Geographical simulation is a popular method in geographical and environmental research. Many models developed to address geographic and environmental issues are distributed worldwide. However, due to the lack of portals, these models are still difficult to invoke for geographical simulations in open web environments. This study designs and develops a framework to assemble service-oriented models from volunteers distributed worldwide for geographical simulations on the web. The framework consists of three layers (task layer, data exchange layer, and model execution layer) that establish a network of service-oriented locally shared models and simulation tasks for user configurations. With the help of such a framework, users can configure simulation tasks and invoke suitable models shared worldwide for geographical simulations. This article provides an application of the distributed simulation of gross primary production (GPP) by the Biome-BioGeochemical Cycles (BGC) model in China. This application shows that the framework can be beneficial for model assembly from volunteers' computers and distributed simulation tasks that are run for geographical and environmental issues, which can be applied to Digital Earth initiatives.