Using Grid-Enabled Teleimmersive Spatial Decision Support Systems (TIDSS) to Visualize Uncertainty for Water Quality Protection in Agroecosystems

The purpose of this paper is to examine the way Grid computing resources enable teleimmersive spatial decision support systems (TIDSS). Our intent is to construct a link between GIS software and teleimmersive visualization tools in a TIDSS context using computational grids. As motivation for this research, we consider a TIDSS designed to support the analysis of water quality measurements in an agriculture landscape. In particular, we focus on the representation and communication of uncertainty to decision makers. Quite often, the production of high quality visualizations of geographical information and the uncertainty associated with such information requires a significant amount of computation. Computational grids provide an efficient approach for meeting such requirements. Teleimmersion enabled by computational grids supports “same time, different place” collaborative interaction in spatio-temporal virtual environments. A grid-enabled teleimmersion technology is integrated within desktop GIS software through common data formats (e.g., virtual reality modeling language). Such integration results in a TIDSS that helps decision makers investigate uncertainty using high quality visualization tools while they explore issues in water quality protection.