Global Positioning System Reference
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WPS services in conjunction with scientifi c workfl ow systems. Like in
BWL, WPS services are mostly wrapped in WSDL descriptions to be
part of scientifi c workfl ows. In this context de Jesus et al. (2012) have
presented a proof-of-concept implementation that allows WPS services
wrapped again as WSDL-based services to be incorporated into
Taverna workfl ows, exploiting then all of the Taverna tools available
to manage and execute scientifi c workfl ows.
Furthermore, we can conclude that the current trend is to encapsulate
OGC services as WSDL services, that is, the provision (e.g., via links) of
WSDL-based descriptions of OGC services. This way, WSDL-based OGC
services can be readily used in business workfl ow engines and scientifi c
workflow systems whereas their internal implementations remain
unchanged. Nevertheless, the success of this approach depends strongly on
the nature of the geoprocessing services themselves. As earlier commented,
the level of complexity of some geospatial schema may be a limitation at
runtime, because target systems (e.g., Taverna, WS-BPEL engine) may
not properly deal with some geospatial singularities. Furthermore, future
developments in scientifi c workfl ow systems (e.g., Taverna, VisTrails) or
business workfl ow engines (e.g., BPELPower) may address these geospatial
requirements (complexity schemas, long processing times, etc.) and
consequently increase up reusability and interoperability between OGC
and mass-market services, and eventually lead to the so-called geo-enabled
scientifi c workfl ows (Altintas et al. 2011).
Towards the Geo-enabled Model Web
Sharing models would promote collaboration and experience exchange
between research teams which would eventually result in much better
informed decisions to handle environmental issues. The set of technologies,
frameworks and research works analyzed in the previous sections proceed
in this direction. They pursue the reuse of pieces of functionality in form of
web services to create geo-enabled business and scientifi c workfl ows. At this
point, we wonder whether such geo-enabled workfl ows may shape IM. Can
environmental models, like a watershed runoff model be transformed into
WSDL-based web services or WPS-based services? Can scientifi c workfl ows
emulate combinations of environmental models? In this section we discuss
these questions and identify open issues that need to be addressed to bridge
the Model Web to its full potential.
What is the Model Web?
The Model Web vision promotes the idea of having distributed networks
of interoperating models capable of communicating each other using web
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