Geo Int AURISA 2002

Presented at the
Joint AURISA and Institution of
Surveyors Conference
Adelaide, South Australia
25-202 November 2002
GGeeooggrraapphhiicc IInntteelllliiggeennccee::
The Key to Information Superiority
1
Dr R.J.Williams
C2 Division
Defence Science and Technology Organisation
PO Box 1500
Edinburgh SA 5111
email: bob.williams@dsto.defence.gov.au
The knowledge of the environment and infrastructure and their impact on military operations (or,
indeed, almost any earth-related activity) has long been viewed as fundamental. Traditionally,
paper maps and charts have been the means to represent the environment and infrastructure
and, therefore, the means on which to plan and conduct (military) operations.
We are living in a rapidly changing world. Increasingly, more complex decisions are having to be
made at many levels of authority and these decisions are increasingly being demanded in shorter
timeframes. This changing environment has created a rapidly increasing dependence on
comprehensive and smart geospatial information.
The terrorist attacks in the US of September 11, 2001 have dramatically compounded the
situation. The attacks changed, not only the United States’ view of national security, but the way
that the entire world now views security and defence. There is now a need to progress from a
geospatial information view to a geographic intelligence view – a view that encompasses
information-rich descriptions and dynamic analysis of our geographic and environmental features.
This presentation will use a ‘story-boarding’ technique to, not only expand our view of what
geography and geographic intelligence might be, but note historical events that have shaped
developments in surveying and mapping (the mapping sciences). Having set the scene, the
presentation intends to describe a capability development strategy that might lead to the creation
of a SAGE (virtual Specialist Advisor on Geography and the Environment) and eGeoBriefs
(electronic Geographic Briefs). Whether terms such as SAGE and eGeoBrief come into common
usage only time will tell.
1
The text of this paper has not been edited at all from the original journal article..

INTRODUCTION
Technological advances in computer systems over the past two decades have provided
mapmakers and land resource managers with capabilities to perform increasingly sophisticated
mapping and geographic analysis functions. For much of this period development has followed
two distinct streams; one concerned with automating the map-making process and favoured by
the traditional mapping organisations, and one focusing on environmental analysis and land
planning functions favoured by regional planners, asset and facilities managers, etc.
We have now reached the time when we now have a range of technologies and these
technologies are enabling the fusion of the two trends. However, the World Wide Web, the e-
phenomena, and society’s desire to be better informed now mean that the simple fusion of the
existing capabilities from those two traditional trends is no longer adequate. We now need to
know far more about our environment than ever before and we need to make decisions far more
quickly than ever before. We need to embrace the concept of a geospatial information
infrastructure and geographic intelligence.
GEOGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE
In 1976, Moore and Golledge suggested that “geographic and environmental cognition refers to
awareness, attitudes, impressions, information, images, and beliefs that people have about
environments. These environments may be directly experienced, learned about, or imagined.
Geographic and environmental cognition refers to essentially large-scale environments, from
nation and geographic regions down to cities and spaces between buildings, to both built and
natural environments, and to the entire range of physical, social, cultural, political, and economic
aspects of man’s world. Cognition of these environments implies not only what individuals and
groups have information and images about the existence of these environments and their
constituent elements, but also that they have impressions about their character, function,
dynamics and structural interrelatedness, and that they imbue them with meaning, significance
and symbolic properties”. Overall, this cognition could be viewed as being geographic
intelligence.
But, what geographic information is important, and why? How do we arrange and organise
geographic information into electronic virtual libraries. How do we communicate the assembled
knowledge to learned and naïve communities? And how do we create an information
infrastructure to make it all happen?
One way of determining what information is important is to take a ‘story-boarding’ approach by
reviewing events that have occurred in the past and analysing the content and context of the
geographic phenomena. For example:
the Chinese Embassy story (Figure 1) refers to the accidental bombing of the Chinese
Embassy in Belgrade by NATO. This story emphasises the importance of database
management and accreditation, as well as the need for urban modelling, etc; and
the Italian Gondola story (Figure 1) refers to an incident when a US surveillance aircraft
crashed in to a cable car in Italy. This story emphasises the importance of interoperability
and exchange protocols, as well the need to include information (such as cable cars) for
new applications.
When we take a holistic approach to viewing our world, we conclude that simple maps and
simplistic data coverages common today are inadequate in describing the richness of our
environment necessary for future decision-making.

Figure 1: Story-boarding
Figure 2: The Geo-environment
We need a model that represents the region’s history, its politics, human and physical geography,
economy, resources, facilities, communications and its natural environment via a range of

complex data structures, attributions, and media representation. In addition, access to
geographical information needs to be facilitated through intuitive interfaces such as shown in
Figure 2 (above).
e GEO BRIEF
When geographic and environmental information is organised according to the context in which it
is intended for use and communicated via contemporary visualisation techniques (web-enabled,
multi-media cartography), we could describe the result as an electronic geographic brief, or
eGeoBrief. Multi-media cartography now permits us to present geographic and environmental
information in a range of forms and formats from a traditional country brief, to enhanced
infrastructure directories to abstract visualisations.
Current technologies now give us the tools to assemble information rich documents with
information accessed from across the globe. As such, region and area briefs now no longer need
to be static documents but ’living’ visualisations of our environment. Figure 3 shows just a small
sample of geographic and environmental information available from open sources on
Afghanistan.
Figure 3: Afghanistan
Current technologies also permit us to use a range of visualisation techniques, such as the
stereo-image of the Port of Townsville (Figure 4 above). Current technologies also enable us to
access temporal information. Figure 5 above shows berth details from a Queensland government
site for the port.
In addition, we are now no longer constrained by traditional mapping techniques and, for some
applications such as tourism, it might be more informative to present abstract visualisations (as in
Figure 6).

Figure 4: Port of Townsville
Figure 5: Port schedule
Again, the WWW enables us to link a range of other information types (Figure 7).

Figure 6: Modern Canberra in an abstract representation
Figure 7: National Library

SAGE
The availability and access to geographic and environmental information is growing at a
staggering pace; a pace which far outstrips our ability to use it credibly for, not only the planning
and conduct of operations and routine activities, but for strategically more important purposes
such as strategic national development, homeland defence and security, and so on. We now
need to consider the concept of designing and creating virtual advisers or artificial agents. One
such concept might be that of a Specialist Adviser on Geography and the Environment – a SAGE.
However, if we embrace the concept of an artificial agent then we need to investigate the scope
and context of the world in which the SAGE would function.
It seems intuitive that the SAGE would need to know about the past. The SAGE would need to
have available a comprehensive knowledge of the sciences, technologies and disciplines of the
past and the implications to present databases and archives. The SAGE would also need to know
about previous studies and reviews, previous initiatives and activities; and the SAGE should have
access to documentaries, narratives, histories, and so on (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Past knowledge
In addition, it seems that the SAGE would need access to a plethora of policy guidance
documents, agreements, memoranda, etc. The SAGE needs access to the nation’s geospatial
information infrastructure (the ASDI) via accredited portals, etc.
The knowledge base needs also to include white papers, and a comprehensive range of scientific
and technical sources suitable to both naïve and expert users (Figure 9).
Furthermore, it seems that the SAGE needs a visionary component. The knowledge and vision of
domain experts needs to be elicited and this information organised into capability development
strategies. Such strategies need to be cognisant of acquisition processes and scope the near,
mid and long terms acquisition programs of an organisation (Figure 10).

Figure 9: Corporate knowledge
Figure 10: Future vision
Overall, the concept for the SAGE can be shown in the illustration below (Figure 11).

Figure 11: SAGE
GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
The success of any technological development depends on an effective capability development
and acquisition process. The outcome of this process should be an information infrastructure in
which the innovation resides. As such the [future] SAGE needs to be a part of an organisation’s
Geospatial Information Infrastructure (GII).
A Geospatial Information Infrastructure can be defined as “an enabling infrastructure to meet the
needs of the community for geospatial information. The infrastructure is the collection of people,
doctrine, policies, architecture, standards, and technologies necessary to create, maintain, and
utilise a shared geospatial framework.
A Geospatial Information Infrastructure:
Establishes a framework for acquiring, producing, managing, and disseminating
geospatial information;
Provides the supporting services needed to ensure information content meets user
needs, is easily accessible, and can readily be applied to support operational information
requirements; and
Ensures the supporting infrastructure components (including policy, doctrine, training and
force/organisation structure) are in place to optimise the use of the geospatial
information, products, and services provided.
An operational architecture needed to achieve a Geospatial Information Infrastructure is shown in
figure 12.
The operational needs for knowledge of geographic and environmental information are pervasive.

Figure 12: Geospatial Information Infrastructure
Figure 13: Operational needs for geospatial information
The user community extends from senior policy makers to [future] robots and as such the

determination of information content, context and intended use is a major research area. The
complexity can partially be demonstrated in Figure 13 (above) when we look at the detail and
complexity of the topics and then relate the issues to the components shown in Figure 12.
CONCLUSION
The disciplines of surveying and cartography are enduring. Over millennia mapmakers have
embraced a broad range of technologies to assist in the measurement, representation and
communications of the earth’s phenomena. The notions of geographic intelligence and concepts
of eGeoBriefs and the SAGE are merely an evolution of those trends. Whether terms such as
SAGE and eGeoBrief come into common usage only time will tell. What will occur, however, is
that the disciplines of surveying and cartography will continue to remain paramount in supporting
the management of our environment and, as such, surveying and mapping scientists need to be
aware of the trends and directions demanded of our modern society and proactively pursue better
decision support systems.
ACKOWLEDGEMENT
The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author. Although the paper has
been approved for public presentation by DSTO the strategies and concepts have not necessarily
been endorsed by Defence.
REFERENCE
Moore, G.T. and R.G.Golledge (eds) (1976). Environmental Knowing: Theories, Research,
and Methods, Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, Stroudsberg, PA.

Geo Int AURISA 2002

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