Architecture for integrated modeling, simulation and visualization of environmental systems using GIS and Cell-DEVS

Online Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their associated data visualization technologies are playing an increasingly important role in providing updated information for environmental models. The analysis of simulation results are often benefited from their georeferenced animated visualization. We present an architectural web-based integration of the DCD++ distributed modeling and simulation framework as the centerpiece of a GIS-based scientific workflow to study environmental phenomena. We demonstrate an end-to-end application of the proposed architecture by means of a wildfire spreading model, backed by online updates of different parameters affecting the environmental system under study. Google Earth and GRASS are the two GIS systems selected to highlight the flexibility of the integrated system.