Chapter 10

Analysis of the Specificities of Software Development in Geomatics Research

This chapter offers a synthetic analysis of the specificities of the work that has been presented: AROM-ST, an object-oriented knowledge representation language devoted to the representation of spatiotemporal phenomena; GENGHIS, an application to design spatiotemporal information systems in the fields of risk which rely on this language; GENEXP-LANDSITES, an application to generate space tessellations which present specific characteristics; GEOLIS, an application for geographical data exploration-querying; GEOXYGENE, a platform to develop object-orientated processes on geographical data; MDWEB, a module to catalog data and geographical services; ORBISGIS, a GIS focused on the city; and WEBGEN, a generalization Web service platform.

We would like to organize this analysis along the headings of the description canvas of these projects which have proven, after analysis, the most relevant to identify the project classes: origin and motivations, major functionalities, and reusability (architecture and field).

10.1. Origin and motivations

10.1.1. Targeted users and uses

The projects presented in Chapters 2 to 9 can be organized into two major categories, depending on whether specific users were targeted at the beginning of the project, and on whether there are developers participating in the project or not.

Thus, GENEXP-LANDSITES, GEOLIS, MDWEB, and ORBISGIS aim for precise thematic uses for users ...

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