A standard interchange mechanism for representing the physical environment has been developed under the Synthetic Environment Data Representation and Interchange Specification (SEDRIS) project. The SEDRIS project team in preliminary coordination with the OGC has investigated SEDRIS applicability to current and future open GIS interchange requirements. While developed to support database interchange among M&S applications, SEDRIS technology supports reuse and interoperability for a broad spectrum of environmental applications. GIS technology is an integral part of many existing M&S database generation systems and will be even more critical to next generation M&S and operational system application.