The impact of interactive visualization on trade-off-based geospatial decision-making

ABSTRACT

In a previous work we developed GISwaps, a novel method for geospatial decision-making based on Even Swaps. In this paper, we present the results of an evaluation of a visualization framework integrated with this method, implemented within a decision support system. This evaluation is based on two different studies. In the quantitative study, 15 student participants used GISwaps with no visual features, and 15 participants used GISwaps with the integrated visual framework, as the tool in a solar farm site location case study. The results of the quantitative evaluation show positive impact of the visualization in terms of increased coherency in trade-offs. The results also show a statistically significant difference in average trade-off values between the groups, with users from the non-visual group setting on average 20% higher trade-off values compared with the users in the visual group. In the qualitative study, we had one expert in GIS, two experts in decision-making and two experts in solar energy as a focus user group. Data in this study were obtained by observations and semi-structured interviews with the participants. The impact of the visualization framework was assessed positively by all participants in the expert group.

KEYWORDS:

• GIS decision-making
• tradeoffs
• GISwaps
• interactive visualization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. ArcGIS Explorer Online was taken out of use on 10 December 2013 and replaced by Explorer for ArcGIS. (ESRI 2013).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Goran Milutinović

Goran Milutinović studied philosophy at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina, between 1987 and 1992. He received the BSc degree in computer science from the University of Gävle, Sweden, in 2000, and MSc in decision-, risk- and policy analysis from the University of Gävle, Sweden, in 2015. He started his PhD studies in the field of geospatial information science at the University of Gävle in 2016. His main research interest concerns computational and visual tools for geospatial decision making.

Ulla Ahonen-Jonnarth

Ulla Ahonen-Jonnarth studied biology both at the University of Oulu, Finland and at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden and she has a PhD degree in this subject. She also studied computer science at the Uppsala University and has a one-year master degree in this subject. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Gävle and her main subject since 2004 is decision risk and policy analysis. Her main research interest is the theory and use of decision support systems in different contexts, for example automatization of cleaning of young forests and location of wind power parks.

Stefan Seipel

Stefan Seipel graduated with an MSc in Medical Informatics from Heidelberg University, Germany, in 1992. He obtained a PhD in theoretical medicine from the medical faculty at Heidelberg University, Germany, in 1997 for his thesis on 3D simulation of surgical procedures and surgical instrument navigation. He was appointed professor of Computer Graphics at Uppsala University, Sweden, in 2003. He currently holds the position of a Professor of Computer Graphics and Head of the research group in Geospatial Information Technology at the University in Gävle, Sweden, as well as he has a part time position as Professor of Computer Graphics at Uppsala University, Sweden. Previous academic posts include Postdoctoral Researcher in Human-Computer Interaction, Senior Lecturer in Graphics, and Senior Lecturer in Visualization. His published research has been directed towards applied computer graphics and interactive visualizations within the medical field and various other fields of applications. His particular research interests include usability of interactive visualizations, spatial and temporal visualization techniques, virtual reality and augmented reality, as well as geographical visualization.

Sven Anders Brandt

Sven Anders Brandt is Docent (Associate Professor) in geospatial information science at University of Gävle, Sweden. He received his MSc and PhD degrees in physical geography from Uppsala University, Sweden, and University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1995 and 1999, respectively. His research has ranged from fluvial geomorphology, over river flood risk mapping, to geospatial multicriteria decision analysis.