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TopIntroduction
Spatial decision support (SDS) plays an important role in any planning process that has a spatial dimension. SDS is defined by the Spatial Decision Support Consortium as follows:
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 (SDS Consortium, 2008; http://www.spatial.redlands.edu/sds/ontology/?n=SDSSAbout:SDS)
This is a broad definition. It encompasses any computational and informational support for all the stages during a planning process, including the “condition assessment” and “design” stages, not just the “decision” stage during which the choice among alternative plans is made. In addition, it covers all aspects of the planning process including, for example, participatory vs. non-participatory decision making.
To date, there is a vast body of knowledge accumulated in the area of planning and spatial decision support, encompassing related fields of study such as spatial decision support systems (Malczewski, 1999; Sugumaran & Degroote, 2010), planning support systems (Batty, 2008; Geertman & Stillwell, 2009), participatory GIS and public participation GIS (Jankowski & Nyerges, 2001; Sieber, 2006), etc. This “knowledge” includes understanding of the underlying planning/decision processes, selection and application of appropriate methods and tools, and other best practices for making informed decisions. There have also been a large number of planning and decision support related resources such as algorithms, tools and models developed to date (Malczewski, 2006; Sugumaran & Degroote, 2010; Geertman & Stillwell, 2009).
To help synthesize and systematically organize the information, knowledge and resources for planning and spatial decision support, and to help researchers, practitioners engaged in an actual planning process find relevant information and resources for solving their specific planning problems, the SDS Consortium and University of Redlands have developed a conceptual framework for SDS. We analyzed a representative set of SDS literature to identify major knowledge components in SDS, including essential concepts and the important relations among these concepts. We further identified the fundamental granules of the planning and decision making process and other important concepts for describing SDS resources, all organized by the SDS conceptual framework.
TopThe Sds Knowledge Portal
The SDS conceptual framework (Li, Raskin, & Goodchild, 2008), currently including more than 700 concepts, and an initial collection of SDS resources, are hosted on the SDS Knowledge Portal (http://www.spatial.redlands.edu/sds). The conceptual framework is developed with the practical objective in mind to provide useful information and resources for solving real planning problems, as well as help people gain knowledge about various aspects of SDS. To support these goals we provide several ways to access the information on the Portal.