Innovation and Integration at JETC 2019
“Innovation via Integration” was the theme for a recent demonstration of various geospatial technologies in which several members from Spatial Networks team proudly participated. That event was GeoWERX, hosted by the Society of American Military Engineers Geospatial Working Group (SAME GWG) as a part of the Joint Engineer Training Conference (JETC) & Expo, May 7–9, 2019 at the Tampa Convention Center. (#SAMEJETC2019)
The demonstration involved bringing together 11 companies from around the country, each bringing their core geospatial technology to the “fight” for a collaborative display of integration into a single consolidated Common Operational Picture (COP). Each company’s technology produced a type of geospatial data output to support a hypothetical scenario involving a notional country’s request for support to assess and help alleviate an epidemic outbreak. The mission was to document environmental and existing critical infrastructure on site to support operational planning for sustainment and force protection of response personnel and logistic and medical response efforts. This presented a perfect use case for showcasing Spatial Networks Fulcrum and Foresight geospatial intelligence solutions working in tandem.
Early Assessment
Using Fulcrum, our mobile data collection platform, in this scenario described above, a first responder can arrive at the site location and begin field collection of the critical infrastructure within the area. This effort provides verifiable ground truth of each feature early in a crisis-response planning process, allowing leadership to remove some assumptions and make an assessment of the area to plan accordingly.
The field collection doesn’t have to be restricted to the critical infrastructure. Fulcrum mobile collection surveys can be developed or tailored to enable collection for a full-spectrum assessment of the area of interest. This allows broader, much denser field collection of geospatial intelligence supporting the development of a common operational picture of verifiable ground truth data. Once field collection is completed the data can be further analyzed and exploited in product visualizations of the proposed site. In the context of the scenario prepared for the event, a geospatial engineer could use Fulcrum mobile field collection to support elements of developing a consolidated Contingency Basing assessment as listed below:
- Land Use Analysis
- Environmental Health and Safety Assessment
- Utilities Assessment
- Transportation Assessment
- Force Protection Assessment
- Fire Protection Assessment
- Developable Area Map
- Framework Plan
- Summary Future Development Plan
- Deed verification
Collection — Integration — Distribution — Visualization
The field data was combined with several other geospatial data types, such as Lidar (vehicle mounted, handheld), Sonar, 3D scanner, and sUAS Imagery to build a common picture for visualization and generating lab reports. Along with using existing open-source data sources from the local area, a virtual geospatial picture was constructed in a collaborative environment and stakeholders developed a deeper understanding of the affected area to assist in making critical decisions before stepping into it.
The Foresight data service by Spatial Networks puts the capability described above into the hands of our global network of geospatial professionals to provide an intimate understanding of constraining, challenging environments at a global scale. Foresight can acquire ground-verified, high-fidelity, street-level information with a unique perspective to produce true, near-real-time business intelligence for deriving informed organizational decisions.
It can be helpful to think more concretely about the scenario and mission set previously described and hypothetically place it somewhere in the world a bit more austere, such as Nigeria. A key component of our Foresight service is our global network of vetted professionals, which we call Skribes. We can notify and task Skribes local to or nearby the impacted site(s) to conduct Fulcrum mobile collection surveys using tailored forms pushed to their devices by our collection management team.
The survey field collection can be conducted with Fulcrum in a disconnected environment, then later with a network connection can be synced to the cloud for subsequent import into a GIS or database. The collected records can be reviewed for quality assurance, conditioned in a data pipeline, and exploited to fit a particular GIS or production workflow. The data can also be exported from Fulcrum, with or without media and metadata, to any GIS format and disseminated as a packaged deliverable.
Reveal the Unknowns
A Foresight request for information (RFI) may immediately yield information about the impacted site unattainable from other sources. A fundamental element of Foresight data is that it makes available local contextual knowledge of a feature not obtainable through other data harvesting means, like web scraping or social media. This can include peripheral information not specifically requested but pertinent to supporting the request, such as the condition of medical facilities and pharmacies near the site, or the condition of transportation and energy infrastructure critical to logistical support for aid and relief efforts. This provides rapid ground-truth understanding of the affected site. Decision makers are able to quantify unknowns, find and sort indicators of potential problems, and reach informed conclusions with relevant, actionable data points.
Foresight is the tool that acquires the tactical knowledge needed, with the least amount of resources spent, to make rapid, informed decisions. It is your window into an opaque environment.
