IVIP - A scientific workflow system to support experts in spatial planning of crop production

Abstract

Decision making for crop production planning is essentially driven by location-based or more precisely by space-oriented information. Therefore, farmers and regional experts in the field mostly rely on new spatial-data-oriented decision making tools. IVIP is a prototype for a Web-based Spatial Decision Support System (WSDSS) demonstrating the benefits of location-based decision making using digitalized geographic information about ground allocation and soil quality. We present how the library of potential models for the IVIP WSDSS has been realized by extending the Scientific Workflow Management System Kepler that assists the collaboration of agricultural experts and computer scientists during model development. We first describe the requirements of our WSDSS, and then give a short introduction to the Kepler platform and explain in detail which extensions have been realized: cascading client-server architecture, spatial operations support, and WSDL interface. Finally, we illustrate how the biomass yield model has been modeled in our system. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.