Linking GIS and models: structure and operationalisation for a Costa Rican case study

Abstract

Users of geographical information systems often require very specific, disciplinary operations on geo-information that are not supported by GIS. These operations can be made available for GIS through links with external models. A general structure for the GIS-model interface is presented and identifies six consecutive steps: (1) geometry operations; (2) attribute operations; (3) data export from the GIS to the external model; (4) model run; (5) data import from the model into the GIS; and (6) visualization or spatial analysis of the model results with the GIS. This structure is illustrated for a case study from Costa Rica, where a GIS is linked with a linear programming model for the analysis of alternative land use scenarios. The structure can be used with many commercial software packages to develop user oriented applications.