Public services refer to the provision of immaterial (services) as well as physical
goods (infrastructures) for the general public. Examples are healthcare facilities
like hospitals or medical practices, education infrastructures like schools, retail,
and local amenities. The planners of such services must ensure that facilities
are provided for all citizens within a reasonable distance, i.e., traveling time. At
the same time, the actual quality of the supply is relatively difficult to measure.
A comprehensive analysis requires population data, detailed information about
public service infrastructures and their capacities, as well as their accessibility
with different means of transport. The chapter demonstrates how geospatial Web
applications and analysis tools can support public service planning and how such
centrally providedWeb applications can increase the transparency and the quality
of planning decisions. At the same time, the workload for planners or decisionmakers
is reduced since they no longer have to spend time on preliminary data
search and integration or on building complex analysis methods and models themselves.
In this context, the paper introduces three prototypically implemented
applications with their provided functionalities and targeted user groups (e.g.,
policymakers at different levels, public services planners, or citizens). The applied
technologies, architectures, relevant data, and services are discussed.