AF GeoBase Compass Workshop establishes road map for future

  • Published
  • By Roger Gragg
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  The Air Force Civil Engineer Center hosted the 2015 GeoBase Compass Workshop here recently. 

It marked the first time in nearly seven years that the Air Force geospatial integration community gathered in person to address the GeoBase program and its future.

Geospatial engineering is one of three core military engineering functions and is made up of engineer capabilities that portray data relating to a geographic location, including natural and man-made features, to provide information to commanders and staff. 

GeoBase is a business information program designed to provide leadership with high-fidelity and real-time data to make command decisions, said Lt. Col. Dan Guinan, chief of the built infrastructure activities analysis branch and lead for the GeoBase program office located at AFCEC.

"Geospatial engineering can provide rolling real-world environmental data for command and control and provide real-time situational analysis, and that is invaluable," said Guinan. "In addition to keeping up with flight missions, it can give an installation commander a full, real-world graphical representation on the physical installation and help him or her make decisions."

AFCEC's Planning and Integration Directorate recently became the home for the Air Force's Geospatial Integration Office and is facilitating the transformation to an Air Force-wide GeoBase program.  Geospatial integration offices, dispersed across the installation complex and major commands, currently provide an array of different services, supporting different missions and operating different systems.  The goal is to define, measure and evaluate services currently being provided and optimize their value to the mission, said Guinan.

"Our goal is to provide an enterprise solution that takes the best of existing practices, and centralize and standardize the program to better align with the installation mission set," said Guinan.  "This workshop is a huge step to establishing a road map for GeoBase 2.0 development and operations for the next 3 to 5 years."

The GeoBase concept began at the Air Force Academy in 1998 with then Col. Brian Cullis, while looking across the use of Air Force GIS technology. 

There was no centralized methodology or even standard operating systems, Cullis, now retired and the director of spatial enterprise services for Critigen, told those gathered for the workshop. At one installation, five separate mapping systems and aerial photography were purchased to map the same installation, he said. 

As he was reviewing this varied landscape, he envisioned the use of one system across all missions.

"GeoBase has always been rooted in accomplishing the mission more effectively at the lowest cost," said Cullis. "While it is fun to think of the 'To-Be' and easy to collect the 'As-Is,' the greatest challenge has always been moving the technology, and more importantly, the culture from current to future methods."

Even though there were obstacles when they first began in 2000, he said the time may be perfectly suited for the transformation now.

"The combination of fiscal needs, advances in technology and, most importantly, cultural enablers, have created a unique opportunity," said Cullis. "Now we are at a point that the overall cross-functional organization is here, in the form of (the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center), that is optimally aligned to benefit from a cross-funtional IT capability like GeoBase."

In addition to Cullis' historical perspective, the workshop included a presentation of GeoBase 2.0 strategy, organizational alignment, common operating levels, career development and program objective memorandum development.

Guinan said a focus for the future will be standardizing the GeoBase program and determining how it aligns in the AFIMSC structure to fully support the installation mission.

"In the workshop we focused on defining program success in terms of support to the installation and their missions," said Guinan.  "GeoBase is a powerful tool but it really isn't a stand-alone system. It's real power depends on its interaction with different capabilities and processes and we need to integrate it into the mission flow to take full advantage of what the tool can be for the Air Force."