Feasibility study of geo-spatial analysis using grid computing

Spatial applications will gain high complexity as the volume of spatial data increases rapidly. A suitable data processing and computing infrastructure for spatial applications needs to be established. Over the past decade, grid has become a powerful computing environment for data intensive and computing intensive applications. In this paper, we tested and analyzed the feasibility of using Grid platform for spatial analysis functionalities in Geographic Information System (GIS). We found that spatial interpolation, buffers, and spatial query can be easily migrated to Grid platform. Polygon overlay and transformation could achieve better results on Grid platform. To do network analysis and spatial statistical analysis on Grid platform could be no significant improvement of performance. The most un-suitable spatial analysis on Grid platform is the spatial measurement.