Data integration in a collaborative decision support system

Abstract

Fast and accurate information exchange in the areas relating to spatial and temporal information, such as in aviation information management or disaster decision support systems, are of vital importance due to financial and more importantly safety implications. The problem that impedes rapid and correct decision-making is that information is often segregated in many different formats and domains, and integrating them has been recognized as one of the major problems. For example, in the aviation industry, weather data given to flight en-route has different formats and standards from those of the airport notification messages. The fact that messages are exchanged using different standards has been an inherent problem in data integration in many spatial temporal domains. The solution is to provide seamless data integration so that a sequence of information can be analyzed 'on the fly'.Our aim is to develop an integration method for data that comes from different domains that operationally need to interact together. We especially focus on those domains that have temporal and spatial characteristics as their main properties. For example, in a flight plan from Melbourne to London which comprises of multiple international airspace segments, a pilot can get an integrated view of the flight route with the weather forecast and airport notifications at each segment. This is only achievable if flight route, airport notifications, and weather forecast at each segment are integrated in a spatial temporal system.There has been a huge effort in the recent years to establish a standard vocabulary and definitions for the areas where a collaborative decision support is required. This effort ultimately needs the participation of the industry stake-holders and the international standard bodies who will host and maintain the standards.In this talk, we will share our team experiences in performing large data integration and migration for the Australian aeronautical reference data as part of an effort to establish a collaborative decision support system. As part of the effort, we have also been working with the international standard body - Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) USA in the exploration of a standard for the integration of weather information into the aviation information systems.