Service chaining architectures for applications implementing distributed geographic information processing

Service-Oriented Architectures can be used as a framework for enabling distributed geographic information processing (DGIP). The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has published several standards for services. These can be composed into service chains that support the execution of workflows constituting complex DGIP applications. In this paper, we introduce a basic architecture and building blocks for building DGIP applications based on service chains. We investigate the issues arising from the composition of OGC services into such service chains. We study various architectural patterns in order to guide application developers in their task of implementing DGIP applications based on service chains. More specifically, we focus on the control flow and data flow patterns in the execution of a workflow. These issues are illustrated with an example from the domain of risk management - a forest fire risk mapping scenario.