Big data has now become a strong focus of global interest that is increasingly attracting the attention of academia, industry, government and other organizations. Big data can be situated in the disciplinary area of traditional geospatial data handling theory and methods. The increasing volume and varying format of collected geospatial big data presents challenges in storing, managing, processing, analyzing, visualizing and verifying the quality of data. This has implications for the quality of decisions made with big data. Consequently, this position paper of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Technical Commission II (TC II) revisits the existing geospatial data handling methods and theories to determine if they are still capable of handling emerging geospatial big data. Further, the paper synthesises problems, major issues and challenges with current developments as well as recommending what needs to be developed further in the near future.

https://orbit.dtu.dk/files/117885360/PHOTO_D_15_00278R1B.pdf

Geospatial Big Data Handling Theory and Methods: A Review and Research Challenges

In an era of smart cities, planning support systems (PSS) offer the potential to harness the power of urban big data and support land-use and transport planning. PSS encapsulate data-driven modelling approaches for envisioning alternative future cities scenarios. They are widely available but have limited adoption in the planning profession (Russo, Lanzilotti, Costabile, & Pettit, 2017). Research has identified issues preventing their mainstream adoption to be, among others, the gap between PSS supply and demand (Geertman, 2016), their difficulty of use, a need for greater understanding of PSS capabilities and a lack of awareness of their applications (Russo et al., 2017; Vonk, Geertman, & Schot, 2005). To address this, a review of five PSS is conducted in the context of four vignettes applied in Australia and applicable internationally. A critical review has been undertaken, demonstrating how these PSS provide an evidence basis to understand, model and manage growing cities. The results suggest that PSS can assist in undertaking key tasks associated with the planning process. In addition to supporting planning and decision making, PSS can potentially enable better co-ordination between city, state and federal planning and infrastructure agencies, thus promoting a multi-scaled approach that improves local and national data sharing, modelling, reporting and scenario planning. The research demonstrates that PSS can assist in navigating the complexities of rapid multi-faceted urban growth to achieve better-informed planning outcomes. The paper concludes by outlining ways PSS address limitations of the past and can begin to address anticipated future challenges.

Planning support systems for smart cities

Towards satisfying practitioners in using Planning Support Systems

Development of an energy atlas for renovation of the multifamily building stock in Sweden

Recent advances in cloud computing and the ability to more easily deliver online tools and services provide exciting opportunities for the development and application of online planning support systems. This paper describes the application of an online open source land suitability tool which has been developed as one of the many tools available through the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) workbench. The tool is part of the larger open source online What if? planning support system (PSS) which implements the desktop What if? PSS developed by Klosterman (Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 26:393–408, 1999; 2008). This paper describes the development of the online What if? suitability tool and the advantages and disadvantages of developing this novel solution. The paper focuses on a case study which used the tool for collaborative planning in the context of developing land suitability scenarios for the Metro North West sub-region in the Perth-Peel region undertaken by the Department of Planning in Western Australia. The paper concludes by discussing the lessons learned from formulating the land use suitability scenarios for Perth and outlines the next steps in the development and application of the online What if? tool.

The Online What if? Planning Support System: A Land Suitability Application in Western Australia

Supporting Urban Informatics through a Big Data Analytics Online Workbench

Discovering and accessing relevant data is a problem often faced by urban researchers, policy and decision-makers across Australia. To address this, several public, private and academic entities are establishing Data Hubs; online catalogues for data discovery, access and interrogation. Data Hubs are typically web services accessible via a portal, however often narrow geographic or application focus, and provide varied levels of analytical and visualisation capability. The Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) is an initiative focused on providing urban researchers, policy and decision-makers better access to comprehensive datasets through a dedicated e-Infrastructure platform. The AURIN portal will facilitate programmatic access to data held in many emerging Data Hubs across Australia. AURIN is implementing a federated data approach, providing a single access point and common interface for interrogating datasets. This paper outlines the Data Hub concept, describing the process and benefits of Data Hub integration within the AURIN e-infrastructure context.

/pdf/realising-the-data-hubs-concept-for-urban-research-in-13k1ql1ssm.pdf

Phillip Delaney

Papers

The Online What if? Planning Support System: A Land Suitability Application in Western Australia

Supporting Urban Informatics through a Big Data Analytics Online Workbench

Realising the Data Hubs Concept for Urban Research in Australia