SPeCS - A spatial decision support collaborative system for environment design

The integration of geographic information systems (GIS), electronic meeting systems (EMS), and workflow concepts, introduces a new approach called SPeCS. Our system intends to support the aspects of multi-criteria spatial analysis within a distributed GIS with tools that can help a group to cope with their activities in this kind of project. It should aid design team members with coordination features that can vary from workflow facilities to tools that can help them achieve resolutions which shall represent the consensus in a decision-making process. This work presents a prototype, that explores coordination in a spatial collaborative system and supports the geo-referencing of the arguments produced by the discussion involving the members of the design team. The main task of these groups is to produce a proposal for environmental preservations or changes taking into account socioeconomic, climate and soil aspects.