Terrain analysis for positioning combat personnel
Student name: Ms Sharvari Shridharan
Guide: Dr Bakim Chandra Oinam
Year of completion: 2012
Host Organisation: Defense Terrain Research Laboratory (DTRL), Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO), New
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr S K Pundir
Abstract: History has established that positioning of soldiers in combat zones, especially
mountainous ones, is most important (for instance, as evinced by the Indo-Pak
Kargil war). In order to apply logic to terrain based situational awareness for
defence (not attack), the inputs of terrain height, linear distance and land use land
cover have been considered.
An application that gives positional analysis information based on the three inputs
has been developed. Line of sight between two points (linear line of sight) has also
been developed to include consideration for visibility analysis.
The application has been developed on the open source NASA World Wind which
it uses as a medium for 3D visualization. World Wind was also found to be more
useful than just for visualization, as its comprehensive API was found particularly
useful in the building of line of sight.
Keywords: positioning, situational awareness, line of sight, NASA World Wind
