A Geospatial Information System (GIS) describes any information system that collects, integrates, stores, edits, analyzes, shares, and displays geographic information. GIS systems are fundamental to today's information networks and inherently encompass techniques that transform "raw bits and bytes" into "actionable, fused information", also termed InfoFusion. GIS applications incorporate tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created searches), analyze spatial information, edit data, maps, and present the results of all these operations. In the commercial sector, GIS systems are used in cartography, remote sensing, land surveying, utility management, geographical strategic natural resource planning, photogrammetric science, geography, urban planning, emergency management, navigation, and localized search engines. Today, Defense & Security applications, such as Unmanned Ariel Systems and Airport Security Systems, are aggressively transforming from basic sensor collection systems that "take pictures" to fully-capable GIS systems that incorporate multi-sensor collections, perform advanced processing and correlations in real-time, initiate sensor cross-cueing, and allow multiple users to rapid retrieve and disseminate information. GIS is critical to defense and security providers in order to enable satisfying emerging demands and rapid access to information for situational awareness and forensic back-tracking missions.

This conference provides a central collaboration point for industry and academic InfoFusion leaders of GIS systems and technologies to share their advancements, learnings, and new solutions. The emphasis for this conference is on expanding the awareness of advanced architectures and enabling technologies that address emerging and adaptive security threats. Technical and scientific papers related to advancements in Architectures for GIS Collection Sensors, Data Processing Algorithms and Techniques, Information Dissemination, Serving, Search, and Query Methodologies, and Information Visualization Solutions that push beyond the scope of the state-of-the-art in industry are solicited.

Conference Chairs
Matthew F. Pellechia, ITT Exelis Inc.; Richard J. Sorensen, U.S. Air Force Aeronautical Systems Ctr.
Conference Co-Chairs
Shiloh L. Dockstader, ITT Exelis Inc.; Kannappan Palaniappan, Univ. of Missouri-Columbia; Xuan Liu, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Ctr.

Program Committee
Erik P. Blasch, Air Force Research Lab.; Bernard V. Brower, ITT Exelis Inc.; Filiz Bunyak, Univ. of Missouri-Columbia; Rama Chellappa, Univ. of Maryland, College Park; Hui Cheng, SRI International Sarnoff; Brian J. Daniel, U.S. Naval Research Lab.; James W. Davis, The Ohio State Univ.; Larry S. Davis, Univ. of Maryland, College Park; Paul B. Deignan, L-3 Communications Integrated Systems; Emmanuel Duflos, École Centrale de Lille (France); Daniel Edwards, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; Paul W. Fieguth, Univ. of Waterloo (Canada); Michael E. Gangl, MacAulay-Brown, Inc.; Robert J. Gillen, Univ. of Dayton Research Institute; Adel Hafiane, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs (France); Anthony J. Hoogs, Kitware, Inc.; Yan Huang, Univ. of North Texas; Holger E. Jones, Lawrence Livermore National Lab.; Simon J. Julier, Univ. College London (United Kingdom); Frederick W. Koehler, IV, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; Boris Kovalerchuk, Central Washington Univ.; Mohamed F. Mokbel, Univ. of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Dennis Motsko, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; Raghuveer M. Rao, U.S. Army Research Lab.; Carlo Regazzoni, Univ. degli Studi di Genova (Italy); Gunasekaran Seetharaman, Air Force Research Lab.; Philippe M. Vanheeghe, École Centrale de Lille (France); Pramod Kumar Varshney, Syracuse Univ.; Darrell L. Young, Raytheon Intelligence & Information Systems; John A. Richards, Sandia National Labs.; Ranga Raju Vatsavai, Oak Ridge National Lab.; Karmon M. Vongsy, Air Force Research Lab.; Lexing Xie, The Australian National Univ. (Australia); Chengyang Zhang, Terradata Corp.

Topics include:

1) Architectures for Geospatial Collection Sensors
Sought papers will be limited to those discussing sensor architectures, with an emphasis on papers that discuss the methods and approaches where multiple sensors are used together to characterize a scene or event with higher fidelity than with the individual sensor. Papers regarding only specific sensor design and performance are encouraged to seek submissions into other DSS conferences.
- electro-optical
- infrared
- LIDAR/LADAR
- polarimetric
- sonar
- audio
- signals
- RADAR
- spectrometers
- demographic sensors
- data to decisions using net-centric systems
- wide area persistent surveillance and full motion video architectures
- field survey results and newly identified technology gaps

2) Geospatial Information Application Needs and Challenges
- GIS program updates, challenges, and results
- Defense & Security requirements and objective goals
- Field survey results and newly identified technology gaps

3) Geospatial Data Processing Algorithms and Techniques
- vector processing
- spatial processing
- temporal processing
- social and cognitive –based methodologies
- data compression
- cross-sensor cueing and data fusion techniques
- sparse representation for geospatial analysis of multisensory datasets
- assisted and automated multi-target tracking using geospatial fusion
- field survey results and newly identified technology gaps
- error/uncertainty quantification and estimation methods

4) Geospatial Search, Visualization and Dissemination Methods
- data management formats, organization, and data storage
- search and retrieval controls and methods
- dissemination techniques (chipping, serving, client-server interaction)
- human-machine interfaces / human factors
- mission configurable interfaces