Common Geospatial Tool Set

Pitney Bowes Business Insight (PBBI, UK) is participating in a demonstration of geospatial capabilities commissioned by the UK's Ministry of Defence (MOD) and managed by Lockheed Martin UK IS&S. PBBI has supported the Common Geospatial Tool Set (CGTS) research project delivery team since 2008, and recently participated in a high-level demonstration of its capabilities in front of over one hundred senior representatives from the MOD, the emergency services and the Government.

The aim of the CGTS project is to establish a coherent geospatial capability for UK Defence through the provision of a set of standardised and common geospatial services and COTS (commercial off the shelf)-based functionality that is both integrated and interoperable. PBBI's software is already used by defence organisations such as NATO, but its expertise in the civilian space, particularly in the police market, where 80% of forces currently use PBBI's products, and ability to quickly integrate multi-vendor data sets has proved to be invaluable in achieving interoperability.

The MOD's operations increasingly overlap with the civilian domain, so it is vital that the geospatial systems the military uses for planning and analysis can seamlessly interoperate and share information with government, public sector, security and royal protection agencies, plus the emergency services. As part of the CGTS demonstration, a realistic Homeland Security scenario was simulated to assess the ability of open standards to deliver interoperability across multiple vendors and networks during an escalating emergency incident.

PBBI represented both the police and the NHS as part of the scenario, and demonstrated a range of capabilities around sharing geospatial information and real time intelligence with both the military and other agencies. PBBI technicians used the company's MapInfo Crime Profiler software to analyse the impact of the incident on critical infrastructure such as police stations, electricity substations and hospitals, plus its effect on the population. PBBI's ability to apply location intelligence across multiple demographic layers and seamlessly integrate with other vendors' data sets was important to providing a real understanding of how many people were at risk and what the impact of various evacuation scenarios would be.