Knowledge sharing in Web-based collaborative multicriteria spatial decision analysis: An ontology-based multi-agent approach

Abstract The Web-based Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support Systems (MC-SDSS) enhance the collaborative/participatory spatial decision making by providing the relevant GIS-based MCDA (Multicriteria Decision Analysis) tools for active participation/collaboration. Typically, regular/novice decision makers need to acquire knowledge from expert decision makers in a participatory decision making process. Over the last decade or so, significant research efforts have been made to use Web-based GIS-MCDA tools for collaborative spatial decision making. However, these efforts as the collaborative decision making tools lack a knowledge sharing mechanism or framework that allow for exchange and sharing of decision knowledge between decision makers (decision makers' agents). In the case of providing knowledge sharing capabilities by these tools, exchange of decision knowledge relies on decision makers' common sense to manually interpret the meanings of each other's knowledge and use the right ones. To address these limitations, this study proposes an ontology-based multi-agents approach for knowledge sharing in a collaborative MC-SDSS. The decision makers' agents committed to the ontology can interoperate and exchange decision knowledge with intended and unambiguous meanings.