Study on a Service Container for Sharing and Reusing Geo-analysis Models in the Web Environment

Geo-analysis models are the abstraction and expression of geographic phenomena and processes. To date, many geo-analysis models have been created in different domains, and collaborative modeling and simulation using models in the open Web environment are becoming popular for geographic research. Service-oriented sharing and reusing of geo-analysis models through the Web are an important foundation of this work. However, model service-related research faces several challenges, especially an inability to reuse heterogeneous resources of geo-simulation. By studying the generation, management, and publication of model services, this article aims to design and develop a service container for geo-analysis models that acts as a service loader and manager to publish these models as services to users. The service container can accomplish such functions as standardizing model preparation, managing model services, and invoking interactive model services, thus bridging the gap between geo-simulation resource providers and service users. This article uses the Soil and Water Assessment Tool model and the Unstructured Grid Finite Volume Community Ocean Model as case studies to show that the proposed service container can enable the convenient sharing of model resources, and can further contribute to collaborative modeling and simulation across a network.