Track: Defense and Intelligence
Interactive Interpretive Battlefield Maps
John BrockhausMichael Hendricks
Maps have always had difficulty communicating position and attribute changes over time. This is particularly true of military battlefield maps, since position and attribute changes over the course of the battle are so important. Animated digital cartographic techniques and multimedia presentation methods have been developed to handle these time variations, but they are not interactive. An animated GIS approach solves this problem. A GIS-based display allows for interactive access to each of the military changes over time. This paper describes a methodology for creating GIS-based animated battlefield maps. This methodology allows the user to step through time sequences of the battle or view the entire animated sequence as an overview. Attribute information can be queried and displayed and is updated over time. The user can change the background display to various data sets. Since this methodology is GIS based, the user can conduct various spatial analysis procedures such as line-of-sight plots, view sheds, or slope analysis.
John Brockhaus
United States Military Academy
West Pt., NY 10996
USA
Telephone: 914-938-2063
Fax: (914) 938-3339
E-mail: bj9296@exmail.usma.edu