Integrating the natural environment into a GIS for decision support

Abstract

Models of the natural en vironment and how it affects vehicles and sensors can be integrated into a geographic information system (GIS). These models can be used in queries to show the affect of the en vironment on people and equipmen t. A new in tegration approach for incorporating such models in to a GIS as w ell as new query language extensions to use them for the purpose of tactical decision support (TDS) are presen ted. TDS focuses on situational aw areness for decision support in a dynamic real-time setting, where the decision maker is responsible for guiding and directing people and equipmen t out in the field. The goal is to in tegrate this new functionality into a GIS while main taining the real-time response time required for TDS.