ShapefileGPT: A Multi-Agent Large Language Model Framework for Automated Shapefile Processing

Vector data is one of the two core data structures in geographic information science (GIS), essential for accurately storing and representing geospatial information. Shapefile, the most widely used vector data format, has become the industry standard supported by all major geographic information systems. However, processing this data typically requires specialized GIS knowledge and skills, creating a barrier for researchers from other fields and impeding interdisciplinary research in spatial data analysis. Moreover, while large language models (LLMs) have made significant advancements in natural language processing and task automation, they still face challenges in handling the complex spatial and topological relationships inherent in GIS vector data. To address these challenges, we propose ShapefileGPT, an innovative framework powered by LLMs, specifically designed to automate Shapefile tasks. ShapefileGPT utilizes a multi-agent architecture, in which the planner agent is responsible for task decomposition and supervision, while the worker agent executes the tasks. We developed a specialized function library for handling Shapefiles and provided comprehensive API documentation, enabling the worker agent to operate Shapefiles efficiently through function calling. For evaluation, we developed a benchmark dataset based on authoritative textbooks, encompassing tasks in categories such as geometric operations and spatial queries. ShapefileGPT achieved a task success rate of 95.24%, outperforming the GPT series models. In comparison to traditional LLMs, ShapefileGPT effectively handles complex vector data analysis tasks, overcoming the limitations of traditional LLMs in spatial analysis. This breakthrough opens new pathways for advancing automation and intelligence in the GIS field, with significant potential in interdisciplinary data analysis and application contexts.

Evaluating Large Language Models on Spatial Tasks: A Multi-Task Benchmarking Study

The advent of large language models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and others has underscored the importance of evaluating their diverse capabilities, ranging from natural language understanding to code generation. However, their performance on spatial tasks has not been comprehensively assessed. This study addresses this gap by introducing a novel multi-task spatial evaluation dataset, designed to systematically explore and compare the performance of several advanced models on spatial tasks. The dataset encompasses twelve distinct task types, including spatial understanding and path planning, each with verified, accurate answers. We evaluated multiple models, including OpenAI's gpt-3.5-turbo, gpt-4o, and ZhipuAI's glm-4, through a two-phase testing approach. Initially, we conducted zero-shot testing, followed by categorizing the dataset by difficulty and performing prompt tuning tests. Results indicate that gpt-4o achieved the highest overall accuracy in the first phase, with an average of 71.3%. Although moonshot-v1-8k slightly underperformed overall, it surpassed gpt-4o in place name recognition tasks. The study also highlights the impact of prompt strategies on model performance in specific tasks. For example, the Chain-of-Thought (COT) strategy increased gpt-4o's accuracy in path planning from 12.4% to 87.5%, while a one-shot strategy enhanced moonshot-v1-8k's accuracy in mapping tasks from 10.1% to 76.3%.