Open Source Geospatial Software Powering Department of Defense Installation and Environment Business Systems

Session Type: 
Tech Session
Presenter(s): 
Joel Schlagel, US Army Corps of Engineers

This briefing will highlight the successful integration of open-source geospatial tools into three large-scale geographic information systems within the U.S Department of Defense:

  1. The DISDI Portal. The DISDI Portal assists the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) in meeting its goal of leveraging spatial information across the installation and environment (I&E) business mission areas to better manage global installations and bases.
  2. Army Mapper. The Army Mapper supports the the U.S. Army Installation Geospatial Information & Services (IGI&S) program office by ensuring the availability of data and services that support the overall management and resourcing of Army installations worldwide.
  3. USACE CorpsMap. CorpsMap is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) nationwide enterprise GIS implementation. CorpsMap supports a single USACE common operating picture and provides secure integration of geospatial data across business lines and secure access to this information within and beyond the Corps.

Tools such as GDAL, MapServer, OpenLayers, and MapFish have proven to be well suited to the task of supporting these large, complex, highly available systems. We will also highlight our general use of open-source software principles including code sharing and re-use, which increase efficiency and reduce costs.

Speaker Bio: 

Joel Schlagel is an environmental scientist with twenty years experience in design and deliver of geospatial information systems. He serves as the technical lead for multiple agency scale geospatial information systems including the USACE CorsMap and DISDI Portal. Mr. Schlagel is a leading proponent for the integration of open source software and open source principals in the development of standards based information systems for the US Government.

Schedule info