Przestrzenne systemy wspomagania decyzji

Decision support systems have been used in many various domains since 30 years. From the moment they were created, they are using most of the newest tools introduced to computer science. One of the latest trends in DSS domain is to widen their possibilities to operate on spatial data, which are data placing an object in the location in space, with the use of coordinates. It consists in incorporating to the DSS structure a geographic component, which is called Geographic Information System (GIS). A system that arise in such way is called Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS). In most of the articles related to this topic, the SDSS is defined as a system designed to support the decision making for ill-structured problems, that have some spatial or location components. Empirical studies in decision making with the use of GIS, has shown that the map users make their decisions much faster than the users which have only tables, and the digital maps are more helpful than paper ones, because of their facilities. In the article, the attempt of presenting the issues connected with the structure, functioning of the SDSS and directions of its applications, is made.