URBAN FEATURE DIGITAL DATABASE

THE PHASE I EFFORT WILL DESIGN AN URBAN FEATURE DIGITAL DATABASE AND DEMONSTRATE A COST-EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION THAT WILL SUPPORT MILITARY OPERATIONS OVER URBAN TERRAIN (MOUT). PHASE II WILL ASSEMBLE A PC-BASED PROTOTYPE AND PRODUCE A SAMPLE DATA SET OVER AN URBAN AREA TO VALIDATE THE APPROACH. THE PROPOSED PROGRAM WILL JOIN THREE KEY ELEMENTS REQUIRED FOR MEETING THE OBJECTIVES. THE FIRST WILL BE THE APPLICATION OF URBAN TERRAIN ZONE (UTZ) CLASSIFICATION FOR ASSESSING MOUT CHARACTERISTICS BY URBAN AREAS AND FOR FORMING A SPATIAL ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK. THE SECOND ELEMENT WILL USE BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ATTRIBUTE CLASSIFICATION FOR UNDERSTANDING MOUT ISSUES AT THE INDIVIDUAL STRUCTURE LEVEL. THE FINAL COMPONENT WILL EXTRACT AND LINK URBAN FEATURES FROM IMAGERY AND OTHER DATA SOURCES BY USING COMERCIAL OFF-THE-SHELF HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE FOR MAPPING/IMAGERY PROCESSING AND DATABASE MANAGEMENT. THE PROPOSED APPROACH ELIMATES THE EXTENSIVE STORAGE REQUIREMENTS OF RASTER IMAGERY BY ADOPTING THE UTZ REPRESENTATION METHOD AND LIKING BUILDING ATTRIBUTE/MOUT FEATURE DATABASES TO ACHIEVE SIGNIFICANT REDUCTIONS IN STORAGE REQUIREMENTS. THIS EFFICIENCY OF REPRESENTATION SHOULD ENABLE DIRECT DATABASE ACCESS FROM THE BATTLEFIELD.