The SmartScape™ DSS (SDSS) software allows users
to build and evaluate land-use change scenarios. The SDSS integrates a
variety of open-source tools (ExtJS, OpenLayers, GeoExt, Geoserver,
Play! Framework) to build a user-friendly web application.
Users use a browser-based client to select different places
on the landscape using a simple query tool, and enact transformations
on selected land, such as converting row-crop agriculture into
grasslands. Then users launch a battery of pre-programmed models on the
computation server that calculate economic and environmental outcomes
of that land use change.
Outcomes are returned to the user’s browser to visualize the
environmental and economic outcomes of the land-use transformations.
Scenarios can be evaluated within seconds, greatly enhancing the
stakeholder’s decision-making processes.
