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International Journal of Geographical

Information Science
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Spatial decision support systems:

principles and practices, by R.
Sugumaran and J. DeGroote
a
Stan Geertman
a
Utrecht University , the Netherlands
Published online: 17 Oct 2011.

To cite this article: Stan Geertman (2011) Spatial decision support systems: principles and
practices, by R. Sugumaran and J. DeGroote, International Journal of Geographical Information
Science, 25:11, 1907-1909, DOI: 10.1080/13658816.2011.565475

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2011.565475

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 International Journal of Geographical Information Science 1907

for Health Mapping’ [http://healthmap.wordpress.com/resources/] and a second link to

HealthMap [http://www.healthmap.org/en/], a neogeography tool example for global
infectious disease surveillance.) This reviewer would have also liked to see a chapter
(perhaps under Section I) dedicated to practical data issues, such as spatial confidentiality
(Curtis et al. 2006), in emergency and disaster management. (Privacy and confidentiality
issues are only very briefly mentioned in Chapter 13, p. 183 and Chapter 14, p. 195.)
The companion CD-ROM requires an Internet connection to download content, as it
only has one ‘index’ Web page stored on it, with links pointing to files stored on the per-
sonal server of the book editor (including colour version of some of the book’s black and
white figures), as well as to a number of external Websites (the external Web links on the
CD-ROM were last checked in February 2010 and some of them are now broken). A better
Downloaded by [University of Southern Queensland] at 23:02 14 October 2014

use of the storage capacity of the CD-ROM would have been to place on the same CD-
ROM all the ‘Book Figures’, ‘Disaster Scenarios’ and ‘Book Bibliography’ files that are
currently stored on the editor’s server (users on metered mobile Internet connections would
appreciate this) and to provide a link on the CD-ROM to an online page where additional
external material and links are posted and can be regularly checked, updated (e.g. for any
broken links) and even added to.
Nevertheless, the book remains a useful resource for raising the level of understand-
ing of the role of GIS in emergency management (planning, preparedness, response and
recovery) among hospital healthcare emergency teams, risk managers, decision-makers
and regulatory and accreditation bodies.

References
Curtis, A.J., Mills, J.W., and Leitner, M., 2006. Spatial confidentiality and GIS: re-engineering mor-
tality locations from published maps about Hurricane Katrina. International Journal of Health
Geographics, 5, 44, doi:10.1186/1476-072X–5–44.
Skinner, R., ed., 2010. GIS in hospital and healthcare emergency management. Boca Raton, FL:
CRC Press. ISBN-13: 978–1439821299.

Maged N. Kamel Boulos

Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK
Email: mnkamelboulos@plymouth.ac.uk
© 2011 Maged N. Kamel Boulos

Spatial decision support systems: principles and practices, by R. Sugumaran and

J. DeGroote, Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press – Taylor & Francis Group, 2010, 469 pp.,
$119.95, C97.99, £76.99, ISBN 978-1-4200-6209-0
In the book Spatial Decision Support Systems: Principles and Practices, the authors
Ramanathan Sugumaran and John DeGroote provide an up-to-date and comprehensive
overview of the various aspects of so-called spatial decision support systems (SDSS).
According to the authors, these systems are designed to help decision-makers solve com-
plex spatially related problems and to provide a framework for integrating (a) analytical
and spatial modeling capabilities, (b) spatial and nonspatial data, (c) domain knowledge,
(d) spatial display capabilities, and (e) reporting capabilities. Departing from this descrip-
tion, the authors consider the primary goal of the book ‘. . .to provide a thorough overview
concerning the current state of the art in SDSS technology and their application from an
 1908 Book reviews

interdisciplinary perspective’ (p. XV). This is clearly reflected in the contents, which shows
that the book entails four major parts. In the first part, an introduction into SDSS and its
evolution are provided. The origin of and need for SDSS is explained, and delineated from
geographic information systems (GIS), and its development over the past 35 years is out-
lined. In the second part, insight is given into the different components of SDSS, including
database management, spatial analytical capabilities, model base, user interface, stakehold-
ers, and knowledge components. Therein, the authors start with an extensive explanation
of the basics of GIS, like differences between raster versus vector data model and their
analytical capabilities to end up with topics like ‘artificial neural networks’ and ‘fuzzy
modeling techniques.’ In the third part, the design and implementation of SDSS is con-
sidered. Topics like different kinds of SDSS software and building desktop SDSS versus
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building Web-based SDSS are introduced and described extensively. In the fourth part, a
variety of applications in various disciplines with numerous case studies are presented.
These range from natural resource management and environmental applications to urban,
transport, and business applications. This is followed by some technical and/or organiza-
tional challenges that (will) affect the success or failure of SDSS and some likely future
directions of these systems.
The intended audiences for the book are, in particular, students and professionals in
various domains and disciplines, as well as researchers, planners, and managers involved
in urban and regional planning. Moreover, the book is intended to be suitable for teaching at
different levels, including introductory and graduate-level courses and professional train-
ing. This educational focus is clearly reflected in both the content and the structure of the
book, in that the text of the book is meant to be instructive to a wide audience. For myself,
not really a SDSS expert, I found the manner in which the authors treat these SDSS-related
topics to be truly instructive and written for a wide audience. The book starts by elaborating
on the nature of spatial problems and defining the role of SDSS. Thereafter, the structure
of the book is introduction, components, design and implementation, and applications and
challenges. All chapters have a similar structure: learning objectives, introduction, main
text, summary, suggested readings, and references. In my opinion, this clearly reflects its
intended purpose to serve as an instructive work for a broad audience. This educational
aspect is reflected in the book’s content, in which advanced topics like, for instance, cel-
lular automata modeling are always preceded by introductory spatial modeling topics like
buffering and overlay. In addition, even computer code has been made available on the
Internet as a contribution to building a desktop SDSS (p. 279; 306; 349).
After reading the book more in depth, several additional reviewing remarks can be
made regarding the content and structure of the book.
First, as indicated by the authors, the book concerns a comprehensive SDSS overview.
In almost 500 pages the field of SDSS is presented: origins, evolution, components, appli-
cations, and future. To give an example of such comprehensiveness, the book also contains
a long list with URLs for downloadable spatial data in the United States, as well as global
spatial data sources and commercial and open source GIS software (p. 140–143). This is
very valuable and it prevents a lot of searching work, although the URLs may have a lim-
ited shelf life as Websites are changing addresses quite often. To give another example of
this comprehensiveness which I however consider less valuable is the inclusion of 80 pages
on the basics of GIS. Personally, I think there are lots of valuable educational books on the
basics of GIS that have much more to offer; and in an overview book on SDSS, there is no
need for a summary in 80 pages on this.
This brings me to another but related point, the demarcation of the field of SDSS. On
page 14, the authors define SDSS as ‘. . . integrated computer systems that support decision
 International Journal of Geographical Information Science 1909

makers in addressing semistructured or unstructured spatial problems in an interactive and

iterative way with functionality for handling spatial and nonspatial databases, analytical
modeling capabilities, decision support utilities such as scenario analysis and effective
data and information presentation utilities.’ From this, they state that GIS alone does not
qualify as a SDSS (p. 14), or put more simply, the authors consider GIS not suitable to
handle unstructured spatial decision problems, because this asks for dedicated SDSS. The
question then arises, why then putting so much effort on explaining the basics of GIS when
it lacks suitability as a SDSS? Moreover, looking further on at given examples of SDSS
(e.g., Index, CommunityViz) (p. 201) I doubt not just about the demarcation between SDSS
and GIS, but also the demarcation between SDSS and so-called planning support systems
(PSS) too. In fact nowhere in the book is PSS mentioned, while it should be acknowledged
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both are much related kind of systems. It would have been useful for the authors to define
more strictly what they consider a SDSS to be and in what sense it is different from or
congruent to related kind of systems like GIS and PSS.
However, despite these criticisms, I consider this book a very valuable contribution to
the field of SDSS and believe it will be of interest to many working in this area. While
minor improvements could be made, as Marc Armstrong – generally considered a SDSS
legend – puts it forward in his foreword ‘. . . I came away from it wishing that the book
had been available to me many years ago when I was beginning to struggle with the SDSS
concepts that now seem rather straightforward after having read these chapters.’ I fully
support his opinion.

Stan Geertman
Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Email: s.geertman@geo.uu.nl

Planning support systems: best practice and new methods, edited by Stan Geertman
and John Stillwell, Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin, 2009, £162.00, $249.00,
C169.99, ISBN 978-4020-8951-0

In 2001, in Planning Support Systems, Dick Brail wrote that planning support systems
(PSS) ‘have arrived in concept and in application’ (Brail and Klosterman 2001, p. ix).
Looking through that book after nearly a decade, what strikes most strongly is the sense
among the various contributing authors that PSS had indeed arrived and, at long last, PSS
would be implemented and used. There were reasons to be optimistic and reasons to sigh
with relief. I will return to these in a moment. Eight years later, Stan Geertman and John
Stillwell published Planning Support Systems: Best Practice and New Methods, the book
under review. In comparison to Brail and Klosterman’s book, what strikes most strongly is
(1) how the PSS idea has moved on and ravenously adopted technological and methodolog-
ical developments from elsewhere in the applied computer and modelling worlds; and (2)
the residual worry that PSS have not, in fact, been taken up by planning practice. Indeed,
the very first issue discussed in the very first chapter is the disappointing take-up rate of
PSS.
As anyone who has been in this field knows, PSS have been a long time in the mak-
ing. The elements that needed to come together to make an operational and marketable
PSS a reality have been many and various. Some of these have been what we could
call ‘broad technological improvements’ in the computer industry, for instance, the dra-
matic improvements in computer and display processing power, in database storage and