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Abstract
A Process Support System provides the tools and mechanisms necessary
to define, implement and control processes, i.e., complex sequences of program
invocations and data exchanges. Due to the generality of the notion of
process and the high demand for the functionality they provide, process
support systems are starting to be used in a variety of application areas,
from business re-engineering to experiment management.
In particular, recent results have shown the advantages of using
such systems in scientific applications and the work reported in this paper
is to be interpreted as one more step in that direction. The paper describes
Geo-Opera, a process support system tailored to spatial modeling and GIS
engineering. Geo-Opera facilitates the task of coordinating and managing
the development and execution of large, computer-based geographic models.
It provides a flexible environment for experiment management,
incorporating many characteristics of workflow management systems
as well as a simple but expressive process modeling language, exception
handling, and data and metadata indexing and querying capabilities.
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