an open-source online system for synchronous collaboration on ...

Applied Geomatics https://doi.org/10.1007/s12518-018-0204-8

ORIGINAL PAPER

GeoWebEX: an open-source online system for synchronous collaboration on geographic information Muhammad A. Butt 1,2

&

Syed Amer Mahmood 1 & Syed Muhammad Hassan Raza 1

Received: 24 October 2017 / Accepted: 9 February 2018 # Società Italiana di Fotogrammetria e Topografia (SIFET) 2018

Abstract GeoWebEX is an online system for supporting group collaborations on geographical information such as maps and imageries, and capture and sharing of local/domain knowledge in real time. The system is developed using open-source technologies. GeoWebEX allows integration of geospatial data from different sources in the form of Web services, and collaborators’ input in the form of georeferenced annotations. It includes such integrated components as mapsharing, audio/video conferencing, realtime chat, georeferenced textual and graphical annotation, and user/session management. GeoWebEX has a lot of applications, including emergency response and preparedness, environmental and resources, public security, and state and local governments. This paper presents the design and development of GeoWebEX, and concludes by discussing some important issues encountered in developing such a system. Keywords PPGIS . GIS . GSC . Participation . Feedback . WWW . CSCW

Introduction Research context The concept of collaborative GIS, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and collaborative decision support systems (DSS) were recommended as information technology aids to facilitate understanding of spatial problems and facilitate computer-supported spatial decision-making (Armstrong 1993; Armstrong 1994). In recent years, facilitating public participation in decision-making-related spatial issues has originated a requirement for geographic information technology adept of supporting collaborative spatial decisionmaking. According to Densham et al. (1995), it has been argued that GIS is the main technology to support public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS), but specialized methods are required to support spatial decision-making

* Muhammad A. Butt [email protected]; [email protected] 1

Department of Space Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

2

Department of Civil Engineering, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria St., Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada

in a collaborative way. However, currently GIS and PPGIS are not designed to support multi-user collaboration, but many applications may involve multi-user/group-based participation for collaborative decision-making. Multi-user collaboration is increasingly integrated in many tasks involving stakeholders from different organizations, in which maps often play a central role for providing visual information to support collaborative decision-making (Chung et al. 1994). The rapidly expanding range of Web technology has made it possible to collaboratively make decisions over the Web. Demands for Web-based open mapping application programming interface (API), integrated with other information and CSCW tools, have rapidly become more important for supporting real-time mapsharing solutions. Therefore, the establishment of real-time collaborative map-based applications is one positive step taken by the researchers that are progressively working in many fields, for example, urban planning projects, emergency system, GIS data production, municipality management, and monitoring of urban sprawl and epidemic spread, that incorporate collaborative involvement (Chang 2010; Al-Kodmany 2002; Huang et al. 2001; Roseman and Greenberg 1992; Brail and Klosterman 2001; Klosterman 2001). A synchronous approach is developed to support collaboration among users (Chang 2010); however, little has been done on designing and developing such open-source software

Appl Geomat

(OSS)-based online mapsharing tools to support real-time collaboration. By examining the researchers’ contributions from the literature review, this study seeks to outline the significance of ensuring the implementation of valuable and adequate methods, techniques, and tools to fill the research gap. Multi-user synchronous communications and/or discussions among the participants and between the participants and decision makers often improve the understanding that leads to effective feedback and enhanced decision-making (Evans et al. 1999; Ventura et al. 2002; Li et al. 2007; Jankowski and Nyerges 2001; Jankowski and Nyerges 2003). This paper presents a customizable framework used to develop an online system for synchronous collaboration on geographic information (collaborative multi-user participatory GIS) to solve the problems related to emergency/disaster occurrence. Moreover, this study expects to develop an open mapping API-based real-time collaborative infrastructure with the option of integrating local data for enhancing involvement during debate.

Research objective The study models and presents the prototype development of an integrated online synchronous collaborative system by putting together the practical integration of various OSGIS, Web GIS, and OSS-based tools and open mapping APIs. Some of this research prototype’s components are still in development and in the early stage of its in-house usability testing. The study focuses not only in the development of a real-time map (or geospatial information) sharing mechanism, but also in the integration of another open-source-based groupware solutions on a virtual GIS-based meeting platform for collaborative computing. The objective is to make sure that the model with synchronous collaborative support of information and mapsharing mechanisms will help to improve/increase participants’ involvement and/or aid decision makers in reaching a final decision efficiently.

Background and literature review Research related to the design and implementation of realtime collaborative mapping technologies is still at an early stage of development. Although many efforts have been given to the research of developing collaborative PPGIS in the last decade, there is still not much literature available for this field (Xiang et al. 1992; Hunkeler 1999; Marinho 1999; Hsieh 2002; and Grabot and Letouzey 2000). As a result, there have been only a few and/or inadequate empirical studies addressing the synchronous collaboration, real-time mapsharing mechanism, and procedure of a group spatial decisionmaking designed to facilitate collaborative work (MacEachren 2000; Boroushaki and Malczewski 2010). The rapid changes in technology, especially, in the field of GIS,

OSGIS, Geographic Information Technology (GIT), CSCW, and groupware, will have a significant influence on the shift and/or merge of those technologies into collaborative synchronous GIS. Rinner (1999) and Li et al. (2007) realize the need to support collaborative discussions by introducing asynchronous-based geo-referenced mapping frameworks in which the discussion thread of each individual is linked with one or many elements of the map. These techniques offer a limited way of exploring spatial data or map information collaboratively, while the current study is focusing more on providing ways in which participants solve spatial problems together using synchronous communication. The CSCW application or groupware technologies allow people in remote places to interact with each other by sharing the documents and files through voice, data, and video links (Antunes et al. 2009; Abdalla and Li 2010). Baecker (1993) defined groupware as information technology used to help people work together more effectively. A few GIS-based tools having groupware and CSCW functionalities have been developed using proprietary software approaches, e.g., PCI geoconference. More recently, some efforts have been made using open map services to develop simple mapsharing applications. Several prototypes that facilitate (real-time) collaboration anywhere are designed and developed as a result of recent advancements in Geographic Information Technology (GIT) that support large spatial databases, groupware technologies, and Web-based GIS (Churcher and Churcher 1999; Jones et al. 1997; Dragicevic and Balram 2004; Boulos et al. 2010). For instance, Spatial Group Choice, a spatial decision support prototype, was developed by Jankowski et al. (1997) to support the CSCW technique. Similarly, GroupARC was proposed and developed by Churcher and Churcher (1996) which provides a tool to geographically scattered people to collaboratively view and annotate map/spatial data. The prototype Real-Time Environment Information Network and Analysis System (REINAS) was designed and developed by Pang and Fernandez (1995) which includes functionalities that are useful for the analysis of geospatial data. Trane China SDSS (TCSDSS) is developed by Xiang (2003) adopting the unified software development process to support decision-making in Trane China. Rinner (1999) developed ArguMap by adopting Bargumentation philosophy,^ an asynchronous approach for spatial participation planning, to support group discussions through linking specific annotation to map features. SoftGIS was developed to support planning and decision-making processes, which allowed mapping local knowledge and integrating it into urban planning practices (Rantanen and Kahila 2009). Stewart et al. (2008) developed a participatory GIS appro ach named C ommun ity Action Ge ographic Information System (CAGIS) and discovered responses to current and future local tourism development trends. A Virtual Emergency Operations Center (VEOC) prototype

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was developed, which aims to provide a collaborative virtual environment that enables interactivity among participants while executing synchronous, script-driven tests and simulations (Wright and Madey 2008). Chang (2010) developed synchronous collaborative 3D GIS to support synchronous collaboration efforts among geographically distributed people for enhancing collaborative decision-making. MapChat is an online geospatial tool designed at the University of Waterloo for participation in community planning. The system designed by Timothy (2002) is applied for a study in the perception of crime in Leeds. The core purpose of developing such models/ prototypes is to allow interested groups to share and view maps and spatial images interactively over the Web in order to make better choices. Rinner (2006) identified quite a few important OSS-based Web 2.0 and OSGIS technologies that have played an important role regarding collaboration in planning and/or emergency management-related decision-making. These Web 2.0 concepts comprise n-tier application client server architecture, Web mapping tools, PGIS, Web Mapping Services, 3-D GIS technology, CSCW, and Webbased groupware to support deliberation in spatial decisionmaking. According to Malczewski (1996), a simple n-tier client/server application architecture is normally made of three main components (e.g., Web client, HTTP server, and database component). Li et al. (2007) also made a reference that standard client/server architecture may be appropriate for asynchronous (anytime/anywhere) collaborative participation over the World Wide Web. However, it is often improved to support synchronous collaborative participation using realtime data sharing, and messaging protocols. Comparison of the selected online collaborative participatory GIS applications The evaluation of the existing participatory GIS applications helped researchers to identify limitations of the current practices and application frameworks. It also suggested communication channels/functionalities and participatory approaches in the research work. The research evaluation criteria were based on a number of principles: intended use, sharing of documents, exchanging of ideas, real-time messaging with a collaborative map support system using GIS functionalities, effective communication of spatial context with or without forum-based support, security implementation, collaborative decision-making culture, and interactivity of the user’s interface. The purpose of designing GIS-based systems is to enhance public participatory approaches in the planning and development-related discussions. The intended use for these systems was to facilitate public participation in an efficient and effective way. Except for Virtual Slaithwaite, which supports vector data, other applications facilitate raster image maps. Furthermore, in interactive landscape and GIS-

enabled online discussion forum (GeoDF), maps were produced by using map servers (ESRI ArcIMS and University of Minnesota MapServer), whereas in Virtual Slaithwaite and Argumentation prototype, maps were produced by using PERL scripts and Java API’s. A comparison chart was created based on the above evaluation criteria and presented in Table 1. The systems discussed above do not support multi-way discussion forums for public participation. Only GeoDF, MapChat, and argumentation map have forum-style functionalities for the exchanging of ideas. Both MapChat and argumentation map prototypes were designed using open-source software technologies and therefore provide a relatively costeffective solution as compared to others (Tang 2006). MapChat has a built-in geo-chatting feature, which provides participants the opportunity to chat against specific graphic features drawn on the map for municipal planning purposes. All system interfaces seem to be user-friendly to some extent. For example, the main interfaces of the argumentation map and Virtual Slaithwaite were designed using Java Applets programming, while other systems’ interfaces were designed using Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (DHTML) and JavaScript. Some of the features which may be required and have not been implemented in any of the systems are (1) synchronous participation and collaborative decision-making, (2) notification/meeting scheduling, and (3) online project data/content management. Summary of closely related research models The three research models discussed below were considered relevant to the present research study. The argumentation model was introduced by Rinner (1999), in which he introduces argumentation maps as an object-oriented model for geographically referenced discussions. As shown in Fig. 1, it describes the relationships between an argumentation element (discussion), a geographic reference object (map feature), and user-defined graphic reference objects (sketches) (Rinner 2006b). The argumentation model, consisting of object classes, can support many-to-many relationships. For instance, a geographic object can reference several argumentation elements and an argumentation element can be referenced by several geographic objects. Moreover, as shown in Fig. 1, the objects have self-relationships to other objects of the same class. For instance, geographic reference class objects may have spatial relations to each other, and argumentation element class objects may have logical relations to each other (Rinner 2006a). The argumentation model provides a prototype for participatory planning and management scenarios with a special focus on the use of standards to confirm interoperability (Keßler et al. 2005). The discussion component was developed using open-source programming languages (i.e., JavaScript and

Appl Geomat Table 1

Comparison of selected PPGIS applications (Butt and Li 2014, 2015)

Features/ Function List

Virtual

PPGIS

Slatith

MapChat

Interactive

Argoo

Landscape

Map

Geo DF

Info Centre/Management Document Transfer: Search Document:

Search Discussion

Manually Search

Contribution Meeting Documents:

Consulted

By laws, Meeting

Document

Minutes, Meeting

(PDF)

Location Finder

Supported

using Map,

data

Agendas etc. GIS Data Download:

Communication/Information Delivery Email: Map Attachment: Print PDF Newsletter: Feedback Polls: Discussion Forum:

Initiate

Initiate

Discussion

Discussion

View Participants Feedback:

Synchronous Participation & Collaborating Decision-making Real-time Messaging: Meeting Attendees & Facilitator

Appl Geomat Table 1 (continued)

Real-time Map-sharing: Video Conferencing: Web Meeting: Video Chatting (IRC): E-White Boarding: Screen Sharing:

Notification/ Scheduling Meeting Event Handling: Event Notification: Calendaring: Share Scheduling:

GIS Functionalities Exploring Spatial Data (with Forum support):

Not Fully

Not Fully

Supported

Supported

Forum activities

Forum

i.e., Starting

activities i.e.,

Topics, Forums

Starting

etc.

Topics, Forums etc.

Exploring Spatial Data (Non- Forum): Organization of

--

--

Map data: using

Geo-

Spatial Database

database & MySQL used for Textual Data

Map Navigation: Map Printing:

--

Appl Geomat Table 1 (continued)

Spatial Query:

--

Commenting Tools: Sketches,

Annotation

Annotation

Security Implementation Login

--

Authentication: Forum Security:

--

--

User Rights &

--

--

--

--

--

--

Privileges:

User Friendliness HCI Implementation: Strive of Consistency Informative Feedback Error Prevention

Mapping Server Support Maps Generating: Using Perl

Map server

ArcIMS

Scripting

ArcIMS

JavaScript

JavaScript

PHP-based

Scripts

OSS-based Technology Programming/ Scripting

Java Applet-

Modules:

based

DHTML

Modules

OSS APIs:

--

--

OSS SDK:

--

--

Online Site Administration- Content Management System (CMS) Site Admin: Meeting Documents & Location GIS Comp: Admin: Adding Maps Layers, tools Feedback Admin: Creating

Appl Geomat Table 1 (continued)

Voting/Poling Questions Forum Admin: User's rights & Privileges, Abusive Usage Control Collaborative Module Admin: Host Controlling, Meeting Invitation, No of Attendees

Supported Platforms Unix Family

--

--

--

--

--

Windows Family

Legends - Has Feature - Has Some - Doesn't have -- Unidentified/unable to confirm

Java Applet). The map component relies on open-source Java API for maps (i.e., GeoTools libraries). Similar models were introduced and adopted by Tang (2006) and Hall and Leahy (2006), but different technologies were used to develop the research prototype GeoDF and MapChat. As discussed in the previous section, Tang

Fig. 1 Modified argumentation map model (Rinner 2006)

integrated phpBB with commercial-based ESRI ArcIMS to develop a GeoDF prototype. Figure 2, developed based on Tang (2006), shows different components of the GeoDF model. Each discussion is composed of two major components (i.e., the spatial and textual components). The textual component refers to a contributor’s understanding expressed as text. The spatial context, which is a part of the spatial component, is a combined term for the geographic features, map extent, location, and spatial relationships embedded in GeoDF discussion threads. The discussion threads are the thoughts, views, or feedback submitted by a participant via GeoDF. In other words, the spatial context is mainly composed of graphic reference objects (i.e., sketch(es), annotation(s), and other contributor(s)’ sketches) and annotations along with other two spatial elements, namely, the map extent and visible map layer(s) (Tang 2006). The MapChat argumentation model employs similar classes and objects for spatial and textual relationships in comparison with the previously discussed models. A new real-time map discussion class was introduced in this model, which provides the functionality of real-time chatting in connection

Appl Geomat Fig. 2 Modified argumentation map model for GeoDF

with each graphic reference object. The MapChat argumentation model contributes to an open-source application infrastructure. For instance, it employs open standards in terms of the overall system specification. It uses JavaScript and PHPbased open-source coding, and it uses a flexible architecture to provide the integration of other modular tools (Hall and Leahy 2006). Figure 3, developed based on Hall and Leahy (2006), shows different components of MapChat application. These models share common features: introducing open standard-based object models, sharing the same map extent during discussion, asynchronous participatory approach for map-based discussion, and making many-to-many relationships among its elements. They all provide structured discussions, about different map features and/or geographic/graphic reference objects, among several geographically distant meeting participants to facilitate an asynchronous spatial data-sharing approach. However, with the asynchronous spatial data-sharing approach, it is not possible to identify an argumentation element or refer to the realworld object simultaneously among different participants. The MapChat has real-time chatting discussion functionality, which cannot be implemented with other two models that used discussion threads with reference objects for geographic referencing. Although merging real-time chat with discussion threads provides a powerful and flexible way of handling geographically referenced discussions, participants may need to train themselves with this composite function to benefit from this flexibility.

GeoWebEX GeoWebEX is developed from scratch, integrating Google Map API, OpenLayers, and flex technologies, having iterative and incremental development approaches. Also, an in-house usability-testing approach is used to identify shortcomings of the prototype during its development stage, which will be improved in its future development.

Significance of real-time GeoWebEX This study explains certain facts or observations (i.e., core concepts, design and technology, etc.) with an overview of enabling technologies for analyzing and designing a successful real-time mapsharing mechanism. Moreover, it describes a prototype development based on a research project that looks into integrating CSCW principles and open-source groupware tools with Web-based GIS. Why is GeoWebEX significant in the process of decision-making? The answer is to provide realtime, robust, easy-to-use, and cost-effective geographically accurate solutions for planning and emergency situation management. In addition, GeoWebEX is designed and developed, based on the concept of geo-collaboration (geographical data sharing and feedbacks) for better and efficient decisionmaking. Participants in the GeoWebEX geo-meeting session have the synchronized mapsharing Web interface for online virtual spatial data management of incidents in responding to emergency and disaster. The importance of real-time mapsharing

Appl Geomat Fig. 3 Argumentation map model for MapChat

along with user-to-user simultaneous interactions with a shared database distinguish GeoWebEX from other applications used for geo-collaboration. Another significant part of GeoWebEX is its embedded tools and services, consisting of an editing toolbar (creating point, line, and polygon), annotations, mapsharing, bookmarks, feature-based annotation, and comment box. In addition, participants during the GeoWebEX virtual meeting session can share emergency plans/strategies related to planning, emergency response, and disaster management synchronously, by demarcating areas using polygon, relief stations by point feature, annotation of location-based features. In addition, for every drawn feature, there is a chat box, which can also be used for feedback purposes, i.e., having comments from other participants. Bookmarks can be used for post-session discussion. By the help of these tools, participants will remain up to date with any recent activity. The user-controlled views in GeoWebEX sessions are made up of layers from multiple, distributed geo-spatial data and image sources. The GeoWebEX component is truly developed with the help of open-source data. GeoWebEX does not host or preserve all the map information being visualized. Most of it come instead from Internet sources such as OGCstandard Web Map Servers (WMS) or from GeoWebEX connectors at the data source. The next sections discuss the proactive response integrated system management (PRISM) model, capability requirements, key feature, technology impact, and the implementation related to the GeoWebEX

prototype. In the end, demonstrations of the GeoWebEX prototype using mock case study scenarios with its usability testing are discussed.

Proactive response integrated system management model of GeoWebEX The author in this study invents and presents a PRISM model that can be effectively used to design and implement a real-time synchronous collaborative mapsharing prototype—GeoWebEX—to facilitate the decision makers to make decisions in time during the occurrence of any emergency, planning, and management-related workflows. GeoWebEX Prism is based on five major faces/components: (1) stakeholder satisfaction, (2) stakeholder contribution, (3) planning and management-related workflow processes, (4) GeoWebEX functional requirements, and (5) GeoWebEX virtual meeting capabilities. Stakeholder satisfaction and contribution components identify the key stakeholders, their needs, and their contribution of services, which provide direction of understanding in connection to requirement elicitation, analysis, and design of the GeoWebEX functionalities, workflow processes, and virtual meeting capabilities. Figure 4 depicts a prism model of GeoWebEX, which tries to comprehend what the association is between GeoWebEX developmentrelated workflow processes and service abilities, and when its functional capabilities are useful among different stakeholders.

Appl Geomat Fig. 4 Prism model of GeoWebEX (Butt and Li 2015)

The following sections present prototype implementations of the proposed framework to support its real-time synchronous and asynchronous participatory approaches that demonstrate the visions to be expected when attempting to realize the concepts (in the real-world scenario) established in this research. Capability requirements of a GeoWebEX prototype’s design followed by the conceptual architecture, functionality walkthrough, and enabling technologies are discussed. GeoWebEX significance and its walkthrough implementation are discussed followed by scenario-based testing (to show the prototype’s practical implementation). In the end, concluding remarks and its future limitations are discussed.

Capability requirements of GeoWebEX

& & & & & & & & &

The capability requirements of the geo-enabled GeoWebEX prototype include the following: & &

& It is geo-enabled because all participants in a GeoWebEX can see the same geo-referenced map at the same time. The GeoWebEX server application uses a push technology approach to do synchronous conferencing such as real-time instant messaging are typical examples of push services.

&

It has a geo-referenced pointer that has a means of Bpointing^ at the shared view of map. It adds remarks linked with the map context. It has more than one participant with whiteboard facility, e.g., drawing geometry-based incidents. Participants can draw and share geo-referenced annotations. Users are able to navigate together in the map (e.g., changing layers, map scale, position). It is easy to switch the map view among different base map layers, e.g., street map, satellite, hybrid, and terrain It has a Web-based client server architecture. It has easy accessibility, e.g., participants can access the main interface of a prototype by using any browser, e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome. Online Synchronous mapsharing application is designed using open-source technologies, APIs, and programming languages, i.e., Adobe BlazeDS, Flex SDK, MXML, ActionScript, JavaScript, OpenLayers API, etc. Users are able to see maps created from multiple sources—including WMS servers and local datasets. GeoWebEX application is a live conference technology— similar to other Web conferencing technology, which is more valuable when coordinating decision-oriented events such as emergency response, disaster management, and urban planning activities.

Appl Geomat Fig. 5 Conceptual architecture of GeoWebEX Web Browser

Map Sharing/ Annotation Service

Web Map Service

Audio/Video Chat Service

Web Map Server Database Server

User/Meeting Management Service

GIS & Meeting Data

&

&

An OSS and JavaScript-based GeoWebEX framework is well-integrated using Google Map and OpenLayers APIs, in which functionalities of both APIs can be used to customize the base map layer switching feature. GeoWebEX is designed and developed, based on the concept of geo-collaboration for better and efficient decisionmaking during planning and emergency managementrelated activities

Figure 5 illustrates a conceptual architecture of the GeoWebEX system. The prototype Web client interface is implemented in Adobe Flex, JavaScript, and ActionScript. The client communicates with the application server (Tomcat) and real-time messaging server (BlazeDS) using a standard set of protocols, i.e., HTTP. The development of this GeoWebEXV1 makes use of the following technologies: & & & & & &

Web servers (Tomcat) Web map server and tools (GeoServer) Server side programming (MXML) Client side programming (HTML, JavaScript, Dynamic HTML, ActionScript) Real-time messaging server (BlazeDS) APIs: Google Maps API V3, OpenLayers

Walkthrough of GeoWebEX prototype—collaborative mapsharing component The GeoWebEX prototype allows the presenters to share maps and spatial data in the same way as PowerPoint slides

are shared on computer screens in many other Web conferencing systems. The presenters can also use the built-in whiteboard tools to select features, add annotations, and draw graphics. During the virtual meeting session, anyone can be the presenter; however, only the presenter can initiate the map editing tools and control how the map data should be displayed to facilitate their presentations. GeoWebEX mapsharing functionality and interfaces were revised and improved periodically. The main idea was to provide usable interfaces to the public/stakeholders for their involvement during planning and management-related activities. Moreover, some old functions were rectified, and some new features were added to make it more effective and interactive. The collaborative mapsharing component was developed from scratch, and hence, gradually improved to its advanced functionalities, which incorporates sharing of accessories of Web meeting (i.e., sharing of documents, audio, video, picture, presentation). Users may access directly the log-on page for the mapsharing component using a standard Web browser such as Mozilla Firefox 13+. Once the log-on page is shown, the user enters a participant name and joins the mapsharing environment. After the meeting, a session is established, and the mapsharing component will load its default interface. It may take time to load because Web services are loaded from different sources depending on the Internet connection speed. The GeoWebEX mapsharing component interface is shown in Fig. 6. One of the most crucial objectives of the GeoWebEX mapsharing component is to provide an easy-to-use interface for inexperienced users to explore a spatial context collaboratively. This component interface consists of six major panels as marked (1 to 6) in Fig. 6, which are discussed as follows:

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1. Map navigation toolbar: It consists of standard map navigation, floor control moderation, and some other mapping tools. Top navigation tools are briefly discussed and categorized as the following: a. The standard map navigation toolbar provides basic functionalities such as searching, panning, and navigation. The search option provides a way to find a specific place of interest. The moderator can navigate participants to the area of discussion, or areas where some plans are portrayed to cope with different types of situations. All participant maps views will be re-centered or synchronized to enable the moderator and participants to discuss the same area. b. Furthermore, a standard toolbar is provided with map zoom-in, zoom-out, and pan functions. c. Floor control moderation tools (i.e., deactivate floor, activate floor, request moderation, accept moderation) are used when a participant wants to hold a floor of discussion (as a moderator) and deactivate other participants’ involvement on the map. Similarly, the moderator can show and hide the mouse pointer to others, which allows the moderator to point out certain features of maps and/or his/her point of view during the discussion. d. Place marker/whiteboard tools are built for place marking in relation to municipal planning, such as marking a new roads network for controlling road congestion, specifying new park areas and/or school areas in a smaller municipality on the map. Feature

Fig. 6 GeoWebEX mapsharing component

geometric shapes such as circles, triangles, pentagons, and hexagons are also part of this place marker category, which is developed for depicting special areas of interest using advanced white-boarding techniques. Moreover, the bookmark tool helps in saving the particular area on the map with associated spatial comments and annotations, which allow the participants to share multi-user discussions with each other. 2. Map viewing area: It covers a large portion of the screen and allows the meeting attendees to view spatial data, as well as associated comments and annotations. 3. Chat and participant list panel: It consists of two components: the chat component and the participants list. The chat component allows users to comment and have discussions with others while the participants’ list window shows other active online participants in the collaborative meeting session. 4. Map layer selector panel: It allows users to turn on and off certain map layers in order to view overlaid layers clearly. During the collaborative participation sessions, a map layer selection workflow is synchronized so that the changes happen on a real-time basis between different users. For instance, when user A turns the map layers off and on, user B must see the map layers’ changes in real time on his/her GeoWebEX mapsharing component interface. The base layer switcher allow users to switch between different base maps, including maps provided by OpenLayers,

Appl Geomat

any Web Map Services (WMS), and the OpenStreetMap. The editable overlays are the transparent layers storing textual and graphical annotations. The moderator is able to switch base map layers synchronously (e.g., to check or uncheck the radio button of each map layers switch base map view on a real-time basis). 5. Standard map annotation toolbar: It includes point, line, polygon, and panning tools. 6. Information panel: It provides information related to previously stored bookmarks, map geometry features, and Android device-based marked areas.

Significance of GeoWebEX using real-world mock case study scenarios The GeoWebEX component is a technological breakthrough in the field of geo-information management. GeoWebEX is an evolution based on a synchronous collaborative mapsharing framework which supports better decision-making through its innovative mapsharing component technology during emergency and planning and management-related activities. The component also includes chat facility, drawing specific locations (point, line, and polygon/area), and a base layer switcher for better understanding of the map and any area of interest can be searched synchronously. This section briefly explains how this GeoWebEX technology would work with the widely used online WebGIS and Internet computing technologies and can be applied in real-world situations. Two mockup case study scenarios are developed in order to test the usability of the GeoWebEX prototype. Scenarios are briefly discussed in this section.

Scenario 1: GeoWebEX—a geo-collaborative approach in controlling epidemic spread Dengue fever, also known as breakbone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever. Subsequent infection with a different type increases the risk of severe complications. Early descriptions of the condition date from 1779 and its viral cause as well as the transmission were revealed in the early twentieth century. Apart from eliminating the mosquitoes, work is ongoing on a vaccine, as well as medication targeted directly at the virus (Gubler 2010; WHO 2009). Until now, emergency meetings were being held via notices, calls, or letters. Meeting sessions were held regularly, and reports were shown in terms of maps, daily base excels, and trends presenting graphs and charts. This process is, to some extent, time-consuming and causing somehow wastage of resources and delay in response.

Institutions and counselors are now able to collaborate via rapid communication channels with the help of GeoWebEX. Emergency response using GeoWebEX, a Web-based solution offers all that in a single platform. Participants in meeting sessions use any standard browser to take part in teleconferences based on synchronized map views. The decision authorities may use GeoWebEX to share information such as a map, multi-media, and discussions on real-time manners. No traveling issues are involved for decision makers. Authorities can accomplish many of the same tasks they want to achieve as if they were actually present in the meeting. Authorities may point out seriously affected areas by incident marks, which are located and shown to all the meeting attendees. Since each attendee can share his/her ideas and add comments and multi-media to share rich information against each incident marker, the meeting sessions become purposeful. An Android component has also been incorporated. A person can add data and share it in the GeoWebEX database by taking pictures and describing incidents, which can be viewed by all respective users. For example, in connection to dengue outbreaks, if someone wants to inspect/view a particular area in order to see whether it is being sprayed (fogged) or not, and if facilities (CBC test laboratory and no. of beds) are available in nearby health units/hospitals, he/she just needs to use the GeoWebEX viewing component. A real-time heat map can also be used as a base map and can be analyzed by a respective participant. Figure 7 describes the dengue spread in Pakistan with the help of the heat map. This will give insight about the strength of the epidemic at the town level. All actions done are stored in the database for future use and retrievable on a 24/7 basis. Typically, a geo-collaboration session remains open in an operation’s center to allow it to follow events or general situations (for example, the current locations and conditions of epidemic in the specific area). The street map of Pakistan 1:25,000 with WGS84 as a reference system was used as the base map for epidemic mapping. Epidemic identification is based on scouting using different survey sources, i.e., Android, field, SMS, and Internet-based. An Android-based survey is done by conducting door-todoor visits and by taking information from each house about the patients. It includes a number of fields such as the number of patients, their age group, type of epidemic disease, and area name. After collecting specified information, this data is sent to the GeoWebEX database, where with the help of this database, the heat map is generated showing the type and intensity of the epidemic. An SMS-based survey is done by the patients or patient’s attendee. She/he just sends an SMS to a specified number from their mobile phone with the area name; the data is then added into the database automatically and can be analyzed/represented in GeoWebEX with graphs. The SMS-based field survey data also has the same fields as the Android database table. Field survey data is sent

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Fig. 7 Heat map functionality shows the intensity of epidemic spread

manually with a GPS-based location that is attached with additional information represented using the heat map or thematic map. Survey points can also be plotted using an opensource GIS software, i.e., Quantum GIS, which can be used for future epidemic spread prediction. The reference system used for survey points is WGS84. By using geo-statistic techniques, spread of an epidemic can be identified through an interpolation method. The nearest neighbor technique will be used to discover unknown points with the help of known points. The epidemic spread can then be shown by the help of the heat map, showing the intensity of the epidemic.

Scenario 2: GeoWebEX—a geo-collaborative tool for crime mapping Crimes are all the illegal activities which create a disorder in a system. Statistics show that there is a rapid increase in the number of crimes all over in the world. This may be because of high unemployment, rising poverty, increasing inflation, etc. Other non-economic factors like the influence of international situations are also responsible for an increased crime rate. The impact of a rising crime is not confined to the illiterate and poor classes of society; even wealthy, well-placed, and educated persons are also involved in committing crimes. These people have sources to exploit loopholes in the legal system to get away with crimes. The GeoWebEX system helps to handle all such situations from the very beginning, when predictions are received about criminal activities in a region until the criminal incident has occurred.

This real-time geo-collaboration system allows a common person to convey any criminal activity that is being done in a specific region to even a high-rank security officer (such as police and security). For example, when any participant of this system watches some criminal activity or a suspicious person, he or she can inform higher authorities of security departments, and immediate actions can be taken to avoid any incident before it happens. He/she can mark the place where any facts and figures about criminal activities occur, and it can be visualized by concerned authorities simultaneously. The GeoWebEX system helps not only the public but also the concerned departments. It allows real-time map synchronization of affected areas for discussion on the situation among the participants. For example, if a criminal incident happens (anywhere), the security officer can view it to find out the exact loses, emergency services, and aid provided to the affected persons and share all the information with the concerned authorities to respond to the situations. Authorities can call an emergency virtual meeting of his/her staff to overcome the situation in the best way. All authorities associated with this system are updated about the incident through the Android-based component, which collected information from volunteers or police working on site. The report of temporal criminal activities of a region helps to draw a chart or graph to know which area of the province is abundantly affected by criminal activities and which types of factors are responsible for it. Each participant working on this interface can control the screen with a pointer and use different tools such as point, line, and polygon for adding an incident.

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The application allows every authority to give his/her comments, annotations, and multi-media sharing of details of the incident, suggestions, and work progress to overcome the situation efficiently. In addition, GeoWebEX allows adding bookmarks to all the temporal crimes of a region which is beneficial when making a weekly or monthly report. It also helps to better understand the crime type and the regions that are greatly affected to make a strategy to avoid it. An example is given in Fig. 8 to illustrate how crime points are plotted on the GeoWebEX map component for discussion by concerned authorities. GeoWebEX provides an efficient, reliable, and transparent system in which all the discussion and suggestions, etc., between authorities/participants are preserved in the database and can be viewed anytime to know the negligence of any person in the system to handle the entire situation. The heat map or thematic map technique is used to identify the intensity of crimes. The crime points are collected from city police station records and rescue emergency databases (e.g., in the Fig. 8, red and blue squares represent robberies, green circles show car theft, whereas yellow triangles represent murder cases). Moreover, cross-checking the crime points, data is also collected from newspaper crime reports. These points are then added to a database and visualized on the GeoWebEX mapsharing component by type, which shows the crime ratio in a specific area with specific type, which is helpful for pre- and post-crime discussion. Authorities then communicate over it collaboratively and decide how to control its spread.

Fig. 8 GeoWebEX for crime mapping

Usability testing and evaluation of the GeoWebEX A scenario-based testing approach is used for the usability evaluation of the GeoWebEX prototype. A spatially oriented problem and decision generally include three categories of participants: stakeholders, decision makers, and GIS/IT specialists (Jankowski and Nyerges 2001). The diversity of participant categories may include a range of expertise levels in virtually any decision problem—from novice through intermediate to expert (Armstrong 1993). The prototype testing and evaluation was initially limited to usability testing, evaluating the software implementation described above on 25 randomly selected students. A so-called hallway-testing technique was followed. Pre-questionnaires and post-questionnaires were developed in order to gather the background and feedback from the users. The six testers (two females and four males) have different professional backgrounds (i.e., business, computer science, and GIS) of ages between 18 and 40. They walked through some of the GeoWebEX major functions (developed so far) to determine whether/to what extent these functions meet design objectives and requirements. Some tasks, such as (1) to search the nearest police station or service area, (2) identify the area that requires fog to kill the dengue mosquitoes, and (3) produce a heat map analysis to identify the more vulnerable areas, are provided for each student so that they can explore and interact at the GeoWebEX interface. Figure 9 illustrates the system environment used for testing.

Appl Geomat Fig. 9 Usability testing environment of GeoWebEX

Some major observations derived from the usability testing are as follows: (1) some testers experienced performance (i.e., system response time, etc.) variations when the GIS-enabled components were accessed through WAN and LAN environments, and (2) performance analysis of most of the GeoWebEX components is based among three categories (viewers, participatory users, and GIS experts) of testers, for instance, those who have zero knowledge of using forums, and GIS functions have the lowest interest and fewer performance measures of usage as compared to those who have more knowledge of initiating topics during forum-based discussions with GIS mapping functionalities.

Statistical analysis Statistical analysis was performed on the user performance data, which was collected from Web-based pre-post activity questionnaires and analytical software. All data was fed into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for statistical analysis. The results are discussed in this section. Moreover, the statistical analysis section covers the following components: & &

Participant’s characteristics Usability indicators

Participant’s characteristics The gender ratio of male to female of the selected users was 9:16. The percentage of graduate (undergraduate) and post-graduate (masters) students was about the same (48%), while a single doctorate student (4%) was presented in the sample population. Judging the IT and

GIS skills of the students from the pre-questionnaire, it was observed that 60% had a good level of computer (IT) knowledge while 36% had beginner-level skills in GIS. The majority of the respondents were familiar with computer (IT) knowledge, having Internet navigating proficiency and basic GIS skills. Four of the 25 participants had expert-level computer skills and were familiar with Web applications and the basics of using GIS as well. Five of the six respondents from the GIS program had expert-level Web surfing and usage skills. As for educational level, 90% of the group were post-graduate degree holders. The graphs presented in Fig. 10 depict the users’ characteristics in percentages. IT and GIS knowledge areas were marked on a scale of 0–4, with 0 = nil, 1 = beginner, 2 = moderate, 3 = good, and 4 = very good levels. Usability indicators The results collected from the feedback post-test questionnaire (see Appendix 1) at the end of the testing session are graphically presented in Fig. 11. Graph 1 of Fig. 11 represents the understanding of the GeoWebEX prototype interfaces by the participants based on tasks performed. Each group, consisting of five participants, performed a varied number of tasks from which an average was taken. Graph 2 depicts the competence, which is measured by the average number of clicks taken by each group to perform a single task. Since effortless use was determined by the average amount of time taken to complete a single task by the group members, graph 3 represents time in minutes to complete a task showing ease of use for the user. These results demonstrate that the GIS group of university students had an edge over the other groups as they had better GIS knowledge and computer skills. The graphs displayed in

Appl Geomat Fig. 10 Graphical analysis of user characteristics

Fig. 11 clearly indicate that the GIS group took less time to complete the given tasks as compared with the rest of the students. Urban planning, environmental engineering, and management study groups also performed well in the tasks. The English literature group was a little behind the others and took relatively more time and clicks to understand and accomplish the tasks.

Problems and solutions The GeoWebEX component is a technological breakthrough in the field of geo-information management. GeoWebEX is an evolution based on a mapsharing component, which supports better decision-making through its innovative mapsharing component technology. The component also includes chat facility, drawing specific locations (point, line, and polygon/area); a base layer switcher for better understanding of the map and any area of interest can be searched synchronously. There are some functions that still need to be addressed and rectified in future versions of the prototype. Initially, the mouse pointer was synchronized with a pixel value that uses screen coordinates for pointer movement on a map component. The technique works pretty well for the same resolution, but when it comes to higher or lower resolutions, the pointer on the participants’ screen shows the wrong geographical area. This issue was resolved by justifying the map panel to the left

only; however, the problem remained the same when placed at the center and/or right alignment, so the screen coordinates were made to initialize from the top left corner which will remain the same for all screen sizes. However, another problem arose because when we aligned the mapsharing component on the left-hand side on the screen, there was a lot of vacant space generated on the right-hand side when participants used a larger screen resolution. This issue was resolved in the later development of the GeoWebEX prototype in which the mouse pointer was synchronized with a map coordinate transformation technique instead of using screen coordinates, and each participant got the same geographical area as the moderator. To make the interface eye catching, the map was aligned to the center on the screen; however, resulting flash divs were creating a problem. A flash div is just like a container in the programming language which stores different codes. Map, chat panel, and user list are all in different divs, and all are set to specific percentages, i.e., 100%. When we center to align the flash div, it does not visualize the map, chat, and user panel properly. Its solution was sorted out in later development of GeoWebEX by assigning chat and users’ list divs the same pixel value as that of the map div for proper visualization. The editing toolbar is used for the demarcation of point, line, and polygon, and hand tools are used for map panning. Initially, it created a problem because when we selected an option (point, line,

Appl Geomat Fig. 11 Graphical analysis of usability indicators derived from user performance

polygon, and hand), it did not function properly. In fact, the map container (window) was placed over the editing toolbar which created a problem. As a solution, the editing toolbar’s z-axis position was changed (by increasing its z-index value) on the map so that selection of the editing tools could be made easily and properly. Another problem faced in the GeoWebEX prototype was that when we selected tools from the editing toolbar and drew a feature (point, line, and polygon) on the map, it was not drawn properly. Most of the times, the feature stuck with the map and did not allow it to draw. During development, this problem was faced due to the conflict among different OpenLayers libraries (versions) launched at different times. As a solution, the old version 2.10 of the OpenLayers library was replaced with version 2.12 until the bug was identified and removed by the developers of OpenLayers libraries. During the virtual mapsharing meeting scenario, if a discussion with more than one participant is in progress, there might be a chance that they will change the map extent (area of interest in map) from its default location according to the need of the discussion. Later, if the third participant joins, he gets the default extent shared by the two participants initially. In the beginning, the prototype was designed by implementing a rule of thumb that, once the meeting starts, no one was

allowed to join the meeting session; therefore, the initial/ default extent of every participant was set to be the same deliberately. Afterwards, it was realized that it would be better if we let late comers in and give them a chance to participate. This creates the need of sharing the last saved extent between different participants. In this way, saving the previous extent state becomes another functional requirement recognized during the in-house version management of GeoWebEX application. This issue was resolved in the later prototype development by creating an extent.txt file, which saves the last extent (latitude, longitude, and zoom level) used by the participants (already in the discussion), and when the new user joins the GeoWebEX session, he/she gets the same extent (by retrieving coordinate parameters from the extent .txt file) as of other participants. A floor control tool was introduced in GeoWebEX. Floors are temporary permissions granted dynamically to collaborating users. In this prototype, everyone can be a moderator and can disable other participants’ toolbar. A similar kind of issue is found among the participants who join late. The issue arises when participants are in a discussion session and one of them is a moderator who has disabled other participants’ toolbar (to restrict them from participation). Meanwhile, a new participant joins the

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discussion, but his/her toolbar is found enabled as there is no check (scenario) programmatically handled for late comers during prototype development and that leads towards another problematic way of participation. Initially, the prototype was designed without any specific moderator user; everyone can be a moderator, and communicate manually (by sending chat message) to other participants (e.g., I am going to become a moderator, and you all can just watch and do not need to interact until I finish my discussion). It works fine, but it is noticed during the prototype in-house testing that the floor control moderation should be automated. The issue was resolved in later future prototype development. To resolve this problem, a new field is added into the database with the name Bstatus flag^ in which the status of every participant is stored; Benable^ represents an active participation mode, and Bdisable^ means that a participation mode is in a deactivated state. A programming logic is designed so that the system checks a status flag on the new participant’s arrival. The search mechanism helps to find any area collaboratively on a map. The map container contains OpenLayers APIsupported base maps, i.e., Google, Yahoo, and Bing. It can display map tiles and markers loaded from any source but does not support a feature of Address Geocoding. Therefore, a search mechanism was developed using Google Geocoding API version 2 in GeoWebEX. Geocoding API actually converts the area name into latitudes and longitudes, and then the coordinates are mapped in OpenLayers-supported base maps. It worked fine, but it required a key (generated from one’s computer name or IP address) for displaying the address on a map. Geo-coding API V2 was also deprecated by Google. In GeoWebEX, geo-coding API was upgraded to V3, which is especially designed to be a faster and more applicable search mechanism for Web-based applications. GeoServer is an open-source mapping server written in Java that allows users to share and edit geospatial data. Designed for interoperability, it publishes data from any major spatial data source using open standards. In GeoWebEX, GeoServer is used to display and edit spatial data. Saving geometry in the PostgreSQL database created problems (handling of proxy, etc.) by using the Web Feature Service (WFS) of GeoServer; therefore, to eliminate further threats, PHP (with Tomcat) for WFS is used instead of GeoServer to store geometry in the database. Another concern that needs to be tackled during the development of GeoWebEX was a distortion of the geometry features. When user A draws a shape feature (e.g., polygon) during the collaborative mapsharing session, user B gets the distorted view of the drawn geometry. This problem is generated due to the Web Mercator geometry projection. To sort out this problem, the re-projection

technique is used. The geometry stored in a database is first re-projected from the Web Mercator to World Geodetic System (WGS) 84, and then it is visible to other participants. The WGS is a standard that is used in cartography, geodesy, and navigation. It comprises a standard coordinate frame for the Earth, a standard spheroidal reference surface (the datum or reference ellipsoid) for raw altitude data, and a gravitational equipotential surface (the geoid) that defines the nominal sea level. Browser CSS compatibility is one of the issues faced during the development of the prototype. BChat window^ and Buser list panel^ work properly in Internet Explorer and Firefox whereas it was not displayed in Google Chrome due to some unidentified errors related to CSS. Therefore, GeoWebEX becomes a browser specific application. The editing toolbar is the main component of GeoWebEX. Annotations/shapes were not visualized immediately or were simply vanished. It was the problem of the Web Mapping Service (WMS) of GeoServer that it did not allow the geometry to be visualized properly. As a solution, the WMS layer was refreshed using the OpenLayers Bredraw layer^ function by applying the JavaScript timer method. It refreshes the database after every drawn feature to make it visible to all participants. A consistency check service was developed to provide the uniformity in sharing the map extent to all participants involved in the discussion and retrieval of spatial context (area). During the mapsharing collaborative virtual session, map extent parameters such as longitude, latitude, and zoom level are recorded in the system file. The system file with these parameters will later be shared with the newcomers so that they can see the synchronized geographical area with other participants on the multi-shared map-viewing environment.

Conclusion GeoWebEX, a Web-centered application facilitates a real-time participation to support and enhance public participation for collaborative decision-making, which will bring ultimately a more limpidity in any system. The GeoWebEX PRISM model introduced into this research study is flexible enough that it may work and facilitate in major kinds of e-governance emergency and management-related scenarios (e.g., urban sprawl, land state, crime mapping, disaster response) related to collaborative decision-making. The GeoWebEX prototype application supports real-time integration of data from different sources through Web map services APIs, and encourages the integration of local knowledge expressed by meeting participants. For example, in an emergency, all concerned departments/decision makers should have to play their role

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regarding emergency management, by giving their feedback concurrently. Previously, Web conferencing was the only medium used during emergency management planning, but the drawback for Web conferencing was the absence of any geocollaborative console, i.e., mapsharing. GeoWebEX application does not need any exceptional expertise for operating it; even a person with the Internet or Web browsing knowledge can operate GeoWebEX to input his/her feedback during decision-making process workflows. Participants can log in and give his/her feedback on any emergency geographic location of the map by using simple tools available in the map navigation toolbar. This provides ease of access to all participants. GeoWebEX provides real time geo-collaboration, which improves accuracy and efficiency as well as saves cost and time of the emergency management organization. Every concerned department will be asked to prepare their emergency plan, which will be discussed under GeoWebEX for better decision-making regarding emergency response and management. After having the results from testers, GeoWebEX can be concluded as follows in terms of its usability: The two scenarios were applied to provide a real-time environment where the GeoWebEX can be implemented. During the usability testing, the testers found the GeoWebEX a satisfactory application for real-time mapsharing during emergency response and crime mapping scenarios. Some major observations derived from the usability testing were as follows: (1) testers experienced speed and performance issues when the GeoWebEX mapsharing interface was accessed through WAN and LAN environments; (2) the efficiency of testers was dependent on their experience with the Web-based systems in terms of GIS and the Internet surfing; and (3) testers with Web experience were found more efficient to understand the system to carry out tasks using the GeoWebEX interface, but they found difficulty in using mapsharing interface editing toolbar due to a non-GIS background. In brief, GIS- and Webexperienced participants were best to carry out mapsharing facility to make the system an affective application. All of these circumstances and results conclude that the successful launching of a system may require a complete awareness and technical training of users in connection to GIS and Web surfing. The further modification in dynamicity will require incorporating the generic problems and issues with Internet connection speeds, and geospatial layers display in the case of GeoWebEX. Although these results are interesting and promising, they need to be observed with carefulness given the future expectations of this study.

Future research There are some future concerns that need to be acknowledged and addressed. The author gathered the feedback from the testers and recommended some additional features, for example, development of a search query mechanism, in which one can refine one’s exploration to satisfy his/her information need, by interacting additional external/internal WMS Layer data sources. Moreover, adding some similar kind of analytical mechanisms will also be useful, i.e., search by attribute, buffer, and/or rectangle/bounding box feature selection for retrieving the feature’s attributes and spatial information. For instance, Bname search query^ can identify and sort the participant’s name in connection of the number of incident (either, WEB, SMS, or Android-based markers) marks on a shared view of a map which also tells to what extent the participant is actively involved. Similarly, a mechanism for search incidents by specifying the date range for producing thematic maps shows an intensity of emergency occurrences into the specific area. Generating graphs (i.e., yearly based multiple bar charts) by adopting some interpolation report mechanism can also be helpful in identification of slums or urban sprawl growing trends with its percentage. Implementation of the SMSbased technique to show/increase participant input on the map will provide another method of participation/ communication as well as to provide/make available, in the future, an efficient way to implement a heatmap mechanism for identifying disaster or epidemic spread. Heatmap reports can be analyzed directly based on the textual data count and/or the spatial point/polygon features placed in the specific disaster region. Heatmap data output is directly proportional to the number of incidents (number of cases) placed on the map. For instance, an increase in the number of epidemic incidents will increase the heat in the specific area. The idea of implementing an earthquake simulation technique to show thematic map geo-visualization to indicate the most probable disastrous area within the GeoWebEX environment can be another future research. Further empirical evaluations, however, are required to replicate the outcomes in different contexts and surroundings. Usability testing is required of a scenario-based implementation (discussed earlier) in connection to the PRISM prototype, in order to show its practical implementation. In brief, GeoWebEX may enhance and support the decision-making process by involving the public towards this geo-enabled collaborative participatory platform. Acknowledgements This work reported in this paper was partially supported by the funding from the Canadian National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and partially funded by the Quebec Ministry of Public Security.

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Appendix 1: Feedback questionnaire (post-test questionnaire) Note: Kindly mark your responses on how did you find this new web-based applicaon designed for the purpose of Web-based GeoWebEX Map-sharing System. 1.

Do you think you have gained web-based GIS knowledge aer working on GeoWebEX? Agree (2)

2.

Disagree (1)

Neutral (0)

Disagree (1)

Neutral (0)

Disagree (1)

Neutral (0)

Disagree (1)

Neutral (0)

Did you find the web-based applicaon innovave and simple to operate? Agree (2)

10.

Neutral (0)

Did you feel distracted (lost interest at some stage) while performing the tasks? Agree (2)

9.

Disagree (1)

Did you find the online discussion forum of this applicaon effecve? Agree (2)

8.

Neutral (0)

GeoWebEX allowed you to find locaons on map, comment, draw and chat simultaneously with others? Agree (2)

7.

Disagree (1)

Did you find the mapping sharing tool relevant to this forum? Agree (2)

6.

Neutral (0)

Was it easy for you to complete the given assignment on me? Agree (2)

5.

Disagree (1)

Did you find the instrucons easy enough to explore the GeoWebEX web-based applicaon? Agree (2)

4.

Neutral (0)

Is the GeoWebEX web-applicaon a common plaorm for public parcipaon? Agree (2)

3.

Disagree (1)

Disagree (1)

Neutral (0)

Did you find this web-based applicaon helpful in mutual cooperaon? Agree (2)

Disagree (1)

Neutral (0)

Appl Geomat

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Appl Geomat Thesis in Geographical Information Systems of the University of Leeds, UK Ventura S, Niemann Jr B, Sutphin T, Chenoweth R (2002) GIS-enhanced land-use planning. In Community participation and geographic information systems. London: Taylor and Francis, pp113–124 WHO (2009) Dengue guidelines for diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control. World Health Organization: new edition, 2009, Geneva. http://www.who.int/tdr/publications/documents/denguediagnosis.pdf. Accessed Feb 2018

Wright TE, Madey G (2008) A prototype virtual emergency operations center using a Collaborative Virtual Environment. Paper presented at 5th International ISCRAM Conference, Washington, DC Xiang QG (2003) Prototyping A GIS-based Spatial Decision Support System in A Manufacturing Environment. MASc. Thesis, Ryerson University, Toronto Xiang WN, Gross M, Fabos JG, MacDougall EB (1992) A fuzzy-group multicriteria decision making model and its application to land-use planning. Environ Plann B 19:61–84