Parallel processing for geographical applications: A layered approach

Michael J. Mineter and Steve Dowers
Additional contact information
Michael J. Mineter: Parallel Architectures Laboratory for GIS, Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, Scotland (e-mail: m.mineter@ed.ac.uk; sd@geo.ed.ac.uk)
Steve Dowers: Parallel Architectures Laboratory for GIS, Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, Scotland (e-mail: m.mineter@ed.ac.uk; sd@geo.ed.ac.uk)

Journal of Geographical Systems, 1999, vol. 1, issue 1, 74 pages

Abstract: Abstract. Significant trends in the processing of geographical data require increasingly powerful software and hardware, consistent with the exploitation of parallel computing. Despite recent progress in technology, exploiting parallel processing is still difficult so that few applications have been developed in the environmental and geographical domains. Key issues which must be addressed in the design of parallel geographical software are described with reference to designs for three examples which use grid and raster data. The implications for parallel processing with vector-topological data are then explored. The emphasis is upon MIMD architectures using strategies of decomposition into subareas, and upon the need to facilitate development of parallel geographical applications by encapsulating the parallelism in a low-level layer of software, forming a skeletal framework upon which application algorithms can be built. The parallel layer will support distribution of datasets across the multiple processors, and the creation and collation of datasets from those processors.

Keywords: Key words: Parallel processing; data decomposition; GIS; environmental modelling; JEL classification: C6; C61; C63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s101090050005 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jgeosy:v:1:y:1999:i:1:d:10.1007_s101090050005

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ce/journal/10109/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s101090050005

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Geographical Systems is currently edited by Manfred M. Fischer and Antonio Páez

More articles in Journal of Geographical Systems from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().