SITe

The participatory SIX viewer of the SITe platform, “PPGIS Web,” functions as a tool for consulting cartographic and alphanumeric information, while also allowing user interaction by enabling any registered user to edit new and relevant cartography. It is designed so that users without programming knowledge can easily configure a web-based SIX viewer for participatory processes of capture and edition of geographic information .

The cartography and its associated information may be made publicly available for consultation by all users or privately accessible only to its editor (and the portal’s administrative team). The viewer also allows the creation of thematic maps, including cartographic elements such as legends, scale bars, etc., and their printing in a non‑editable format (PDF).

PPGIS App is an Android application that, once installed on a smartphone, allows users to connect to and synchronize information with a specific project of the PPGIS Web viewer. This enables users to view and edit, in real time, the information stored in the main web viewer directly from their mobile device, through an interface that facilitates participation without requiring tablets or personal computers.

The PPGIS App connects to and displays a simplified version of the data stored on the central server, allowing users to edit the information with functionality similar to native editing tools. The app can be downloaded and installed directly from each project’s website.

Research and development activities carried out by the group have led to the creation of various spatial information management algorithms over time, programmed in different languages and platforms. These algorithms form a highly valuable set of tools, which the SITe platform organizes and makes available in a centralized manner. Some of these algorithms include:

-Open Rules

A set of 11 algorithms designed for the optimized planning of agriculture and forestry land use. They offer several alternatives (well‑established scientific methodologies) for land assessment, area optimization (percentage of area allocated to each use), and spatial land‑use planning.

There are versions for different GIS platforms, from RULES on Geomedia (developed in Visual Basic), to OpenRules 2 on gvSIG (Java), to the current OpenRules 3 on QGIS (Python).

-AGRUPE

A Decision‑Support System for parcel exchange, enabling the grouping of larger land plots located closer to the farm holdings, reducing time and costs compared to traditional land‑consolidation processes. It uses genetic algorithms to propose exchanges among groups of landowners while preserving the cadastral layout, reorganizing parcels so each owner holds plots that are closer and/or adjacent to one another.

-Algorithms INVERCLIMA/CLIMAPLAN-DSSUSC

The projects INVERCLIMA and CLIMAPLAN-DSS focused on delimiting elements of Green Infrastructures, developing algorithms for automatically identifying these zones based on prepared cartography. This includes R scripts used for provisioning calculations and synergy/antagonism analysis, as well as C‑based algorithms for automatically defining buffer zones and multifunctional areas.

This component, currently in a prototype phase with only one operational instance, will allow part or all of the SITe algorithms to be served through the web. In this way, each SIX viewer will be able to request a specific computation performed by one of the algorithms, sending the required parameters and retrieving the result as a map or data product directly within the web viewer.

This component helps offload highly demanding computational tasks from the viewer, ensuring that users receive only the final output without blocking the SIX viewer during processing.

Many of the projects of the Land Lab generate original datasets and information layers that, although created for specific purposes, may also be useful in other contexts. These data have been compiled into an internal structure called IDE‑LaboraTE , which, although not an official public Spatial Data Infrastructure, organizes the information in a common SIX format. This allows the data (either combined or as individual layers) to be incorporated into projects that use SIX viewers whenever the information is relevant.