Architecture Design and Prototyping of a Web-based, Synchronous Collaborative 3D GIS

Abstract

Collaborative GIS has emerged as an efficient, spatial decision-making tool, especially when 3D GIS models are integrated. While centralized architecture is still dominating the design and development of such tools and/or systems, alternative architecture, such as peer-to-peer (P2P), and hybrids have been given increasingly more attention in designing more scalable and efficient systems. This paper presents a conceptual hybrid system architecture for the development of integrated, synchronously collaborative environments with 3D GIS tools for group decision-making and 3D information sharing. In this paper, we discuss the major design issues related to such an architectural design and identify the spatial requirements of synchronous collaborative 3D GIS. A hybrid architectural model integrating centralized and replicated computing architecture is then designed to address the identified requirements. The proposed architecture was tested using data/message flow models developed to facilitate component-based collaborative 3D GIS systems. The results show that collaborative 3D GIS require collaboration computing different from that applied in generic GIS systems, and that a component-based development approach can lead to more light-weight systems.