Adaptive Battlespace Analysis Toolset for Geospatial Information Management

Future military operations will increasingly rely on accurate, customized, and task-oriented geospatial information. Our objective in this effort is to develop an Adaptive Battlespace Analysis Toolset for Geospatial Information Management that developsmodels of geospatial cognition to anticipate the warfighter's geospatial information needs, and to support geospatial information dissemination. In Phase I we demonstrated the general feasibility of the approach in the context of a UA/UE pursuit andexploitation scenario at the Brigade/Battalion level. The elicited knowledge, the proposed cognitive model, and the developed prototype system supported the representation of doctrine, user role, and mission task elements, and the automated extraction ofcritical elements of the tactical situation to infer geospatial information needs for several categories of users.In Phase II, we propose to expand the toolset's capability by eliciting a comprehensive collection of supporting knowledge and by developing a detailed inferential model that supports the prediction of geospatial information needs. In addition tosupporting an extended range of users, the approach will implement a semi-automated knowledge extension capability through high-level knowledge editing interfaces, and through knowledge compilation tools. The resulting prototype will support integrationwith the Army's Combat Terrain Information System and the Battlespace Terrain Reasoning and Awareness system.We see several potential applications of the proposed technology. In the area of government applications, the geospatial information dissemination technology will be able to support emergency management operations. In the commercial domain, individualcomponents of the proposed toolset will be able to support the automated detection and extraction of events in geospatial information environments, a capability of interest for a wide range of problem domains, from logistics, to environmental monitoring,to perimeter protection.