Geographic Information for Command and Control Systems: Demonstration of Emergency Support System

This paper deals with the issue of integration of geographic information (GI) into (existing) command and control systems. The main motivations and benefits of such integration are described at the beginning. Open as well as proprietary solutions are discussed. The core of the paper lies in the definition of the Emergency Support System, including the user requirements, architecture, field tests and assessment. Beside others, conclusions depict issues of a system based on the Service Oriented Architecture that is integrated into a command and control system. Such issues consist of existing procedures and processes in crisis and emergency management, connection to other components of Spatial Data Infrastructures and future development.