This research will develop a flexible data query and analysis system based on the web services paradigm. As an application domain several goods movement planning problems will be examined along with their effects on spatial urban structure. The research has three objectives:
1) to advance computer science research by developing an expressive web services description language and techniques for dynamically composing web services, 2) to develop and conduct test applications of an intra-metropolitan goods movement flow model using web services in cooperation with government partners, and 3) to use the model to conduct social science research on intra-metropolitan economic linkages and spatial structure.
Although the focus is on the specific topic of urban goods movement, the approach to web service composition is general and can be applied to other scientific data gathering and analysis tasks. The first objective is to develop Argos, a general framework for dynamically composing web services. Many scientific problems can be modeled as a workflow that includes information gathering and processing operations. Argos will provide graphical tools for manual specification and composition of web services, as well as automatic composition based on expressive web service descriptions for given application domains (such as transportation planning). The second objective is to use Argos in an actual metropolitan planning application. In consultation with an advisory team of government representatives, from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the San Bernardino Associated Governments, the Southern California Association of Governments and the Port of Long Beach. a scenario analysis using the Los Angeles region as a case study will be conducted. The scenario analysis will allow evaluation of Argos both in terms of its utility as a transportation planning tool as well as its ease of use by practitioners. The third objective is to extend the transportation planning domain to address problems of urban spatial structure that heretofore have not been practical for social science researchers to study due to the lack of tools for integrating and analyzing available data. There is an extensive theoretical literature on employment location; transport of freight inputs and outputs are critical elements of these models. Empirical research on employment location is limited, because of the lack of availability of freight flow data. The research team will analyze the relationships between industry mix, flows, and urban spatial structure, using the Los Angeles region as a case study.
