The role of service-oriented mapping in spatial and regional sciences

Abstract

By now geoinformation is available everytime and modern maps rule our daily life. Whenever we leave our homes, we have made plans where to go to. If it is a new route we have generally used a map (application). We plan the way that we need to take or evaluate the transport network and its connections. If we feel lost, we take another look in the map and/or try to find reference semantics which will bring us back to our geospatial imagery—our individual mental picture of the world. At the same time, in our cross-linked world, we produce tons of unstructured data that describe the way we use our environment (nature, things and people). For example: when do we need electricity? For what actions? How much do we consume to what time of the day or in which situation? Does this electricity usage change with our age, education, employment—or any other demographic value? What is the impact of the surrounding topography on our electricity needs? All these questions can be answered by data that we leave in space with our actions and devices in addition to existing geospatial core data. In order to make use of unstructured data, we have to ask questions which allow for a first requirement analysis and lead to the primary model of data: a first data structure considering our questionnaire requirements. These models are worth distributing because a lot of questions are similar and variety of people could make value out of it. Information about validity, lineage, purpose of creation, recording method, and so on are needed to evaluate the data for specific use cases. This contribution describes a work in progress on the role of Service Oriented Mapping in spatial and regional sciences by means of a use case in health geography. Therefore it follows the thesis that specific requirements for the analysis, regional investigation and knowledge transmission in regional sciences exist. These specific requirements could be extensively supported by the specific structure of Service-Oriented Mapping. Some requirements of regional sciences as well as the offers of Service-Oriented Mapping will be exemplified on the basis of a case study “health geographies”. Future tasks for the field of Service-Oriented Mapping and its communication issues could be elaborated from this first requirements analysis and a main future perspective of “Service-Oriented regional sciences” could be formulated.