Transportation Tools to Manage Airfield Obstructions at Military Airfields

摘要

The United States Air Force in Europe (USAFE) is responsible for trackingrnobstructions, such as structures, terrain, and vegetation, that potentially pose a threatrnto operations and safety in and around airfields at all USAFE Bases. USAFE desiredrna Geographic Information System (GIS)-based tool that would be able to identify andrndocument on- and off-Base obstructions to air navigation under existing and proposedrnairfield conditions. One complexity was that the regulations under which thesernobstructions are reported were undergoing review and may potentially change. Thus,rnnot only did different airfield and airspace criteria need to be evaluated from whatrnwas typically enforced in the past, but the ability to determine obstructions based onrnmultiple regulations needed to be part of the tool produced. It is envisioned that thernsystem will maximize limited resources while producing better overall obstructionrnmanagement strategies.rnThis project included production of digital orthophotography and terrain models (treerncanopies merged with existing land features) for large regions surrounding militaryrnairfields in Germany. Three-dimensional (3-D) airspace surfaces were generated thatrnreflected various agencies’ imaginary airspace regulatory criteria. The terrain modelsrnand airspace surfaces were then intersected to identify where structures orrnground/vegetation surfaces penetrated the airspace surface. Because of therncommonality of the tools used, by-products were also easily generated thatrnsupplemented the analysis. Preparation of 3-D perspective graphics and 3-Drnanimations to simulate a fly-through scenario were possible for agency use and publicrnpresentation.