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Replication of the Question-Based Spatial Computing Approach – Experiences and Suggestions for Further Developments

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have developed into complex toolboxes and require analysts to formulate spatial questions according to the requirements of data formats and tools provided by their GIS-application. The recently proposed language for spatial computing aims to provide a question-based and thus more comprehensible approach for spatial analyses that especially supports scientists and experts from other disciplines to conduct spatial analyses in their fields. In this contribution, we apply the question-based spatial computing approach to a case study in the humanitarian field and compare the resulting script to a script written with a conventional GIS tool. The comparison of the two versions of the analysis is based on six criteria covering qualitative and quantitative aspects of the analysis as well as the implementation concept behind the new language. Our results show, that the new approach requires fewer computational steps than the conventional script. In addition, the declarative approach lets users focus on the content of the spatial question and the query-like character of the language makes it in fact more comprehensible. Besides these benefits of the language for spatial computing, observations on challenges of the further development of the language are shared as an outcome of this study.