Software platform to build geo-collaborative systems supporting design and planning

Systems supporting collaborative geo-referencing of data and information activities are increasingly being used for various purposes like urban planning, risk management, geological prospection, by engineers, city planners, policemen, firefighters, geologists, architects, etc. These systems commonly implement processes and functionalities supporting decision making as well as design and planning. The various visualization metaphors which can be applied to geo-referenced data and information on an interactive map allow their users to perform tasks and activities in an intuitive and efficient way. In order to help people in the designing and programming these kinds of applications we developed a platform implementing a core of common functionalities geo-collaborative application share, supporting collaborative work over a shared workspace displaying a map. The application developer using this platform has to program only the elements which will be placed over the map in order to instantiate a particular application. These elements can range from simple graphic labels up to complex agents implementing some behavior, generating data for a simulation and interacting with the user and other agents on the map. The paper describes this architecture and three examples of using the platform for the development of applications in field of 1) wireless network planning, 2) real time spatial data analysis from an external source, and 3) satellite image processing. Since planners must often work in the field the architecture allows the development of applications for using them in desktop as well as mobile computers.