Environmental planning using spatial agents

Existing spatial decision support applications, implemented using the most recent tools in the area of spatial information manipulation and Graphical User Interface development, do not consider, in its functional flow, the dynamic spatial implications of relating and processing this information. It is necessary to incorporate spatial reasoning into application control. This can be achieved by a set of spatial agents controlling the application and reasoning over the information made available. A Multi-agent spatial decision support system that implements a Decision Model (Grueau and Rodrigues 1997), initially conceived as a classic GIS application, will not only provide all the functionality necessary for the implementation of the model but can also improve on its previous limitations. The characteristics underlying multi-agent systems enable the development of adaptation processes within the model as well as the identification of the fittest spatial elements using the knowledge acquired from simulation.