DEVELOPMENT OF A CORRELATION MODEL ADDRESSING CONTINGENCY MOBILITY COURSES AMONG DESERTS

EXISTING CORRELATIONS OF MOBILITY ROUTES AMONG WORLD-WIDE DESERTS ARE BASED ON INCOMPLETE DATA AND ON A LIMITED ARRAY OF FACTORS. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL YIELD A COMPUTER-BASED, DESERT MOBILITY COURSE CORRELATION MODEL WHICH WILL INVOKE A WEIGHTED APPLICATION OF EVERY SIGNIFICANT IMPACTING CRITERIA (E.G. TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, ROAD NETWORKS, VISIBILITY, DRAINAGE, ETC.) TO A SERIES OF CORRELATION "FRAMES." THE MODEL, THEN, CAN ADAPT EACH FRAME TO ANY OF A SERIES OF SCENARIOS DICTATED BY SPECIFIC DESERT SITES, SEASONS, TACTICAL SITUATIONS, VEHICLE TYPES, MISSION DEMANDS, ETC. TO DEPICT GRAPHICALLY COURSE CORRELATIONS AND IDENTIFY ADVANTAGEOUS MOBILITY ROUTES. EXTENSIVE USE OF FACTOR ANALYSIS AND STATISTICAL EVALUATIONS OF DATA WILL CONTRIBUTE TO A COMPLETE COMPUTERIZATION OF THE MODEL TO FACILITATE INSTANTANEOUS GRAPHICAL PORTRAYAL OF CORRELATION RESULTS AND COMPILATION OF TRAVEL TIMES. SPECIFIC DATA FOR THE SONORAN-AMARGOSA DESERT WILL BE COLLECTED AND ANALYZED TO EVALUATE THE MODEL AND TO DEVELOP TEST PROGRAMS FOR VEHICLES AT THE YUMA PROVING GROUND.