Workflow issues for Health mapping “mashups” of OGC Web Services

Abstract

This paper explores potential uses of OGC web services in the context of health mapping and epidemiological studies. The situations or scenarios cover (i) different user perspectives, e.g. public and community, research, health professionals and (ii) different interaction levels, e.g. simple data “mashups” (overlay), use of web processing services (WPS) and participating GIS. Some particular aspects of the domain such as privacy for the individual and computational flexibility/performance raise issues in chaining web services. We propose some solutions at both the architecture and geocomputational level, as well as modifications to the standards involved.