A Constraint-Based Geospatial Data Integration System for Wildfire Management

We propose to develop a constraint-based system for automatically integrating online, heterogeneous data sources with geospatial data produced by NASA in order to allow users to easily analyze terrestrial phenomena, such as wildfires. Current commercial technology permits only limited types of integration - usually between structured databases - in this regard. However, particularly with the emergence of the Internet, there now exist an enormous number of other online information sources that can be combined with maps, MODIS products, and other geospatial products in order to better assist human analysis. In this project we will extend an existing constraint-based data integration system that we previously developed to allow users to easily integrate online data, annotate and extend that data (to add a layer of "knowledge" on top of the raw data), and rapidly identify updates to data. This will result in a concise, rich, integrated interface that allows one to more easily and quickly analyze complicated phenomena. We intend to demonstrate the feasability of this approach in the context of a real application, wildfire management and pre-season planning.