This paper presents the framework and implementation of a flexible, loosely coupled information infrastructure to facilitate collaborative research on land use, transportation, and environment (LUTE) modeling. The framework combines off-the-shelf open source applications such as Apache, PostgreSQL, MapServer, OpenSSL, and MediaWiki, with proprietary tools such as ArcGIS Server and Flex, and uses minimal custom code to provide web services for distributed modeling and realistic evolution of data, models, and research. The approach has been developed to assist research collaboration for the transportation systems focus areas of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–Portugal program, but it can be appropriate for other collaborative efforts that could benefit from federated systems for LUTE modeling across local and regional agencies and university partners.
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