GIS Mechanism For Terrain Trafficability

Abstract

Geographic Information Systems(GIS) could be identified as a leading application mechanism that grows beyond in each and every aspect of the world. The GIS applications in decision making in the military field was gradually increasing in nowadays.This study oriented to compare the application of GIS in foreign armies and find a suitable GIS application for Sri Lanka Army. The design of this research was accomplished in three stages as reviewing the existing GIS application of foreign armies, and developing the terrain trafficability model using model builder application of GIS. Therefore by reviewing existing applications of other armies in foreign countries clearly identified some of the applicable GIS applications for Sri Lanka. And then by using questionnaire survey including Sri Lankan army officers figure out the appropriate application for the country. As the results of the questionnaire survey, it has found terrain trafficabiliy analysis method is the most suitable method for the country. Then Kalutara district was selected as the study area and land use, soil, elevation, used as raw data. In present, the Sri Lankan army doing terrain analysis using the Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield(IPB). Terrain overlay is the part of IPB which identify go, no go, slow go areas of the terrain. This research focused on the identification of GIS mechanism for this manual process using GIS accurately compared to the manual process. Therefore suggest utilizing this analysis in the future for the terrain analysis in Sri Lanka Army.