ORNL and the geographic information systems revolution
Explorers from competing teams race to find a mysterious lost city in the heart of Africa. The American team is continuously in touch with its Houston home base through satellite communications. In flight, team leader Karen Ross displays a map of Africa on her computer screen and notes the multicolored lines suggesting different routes from city to city and into the rain forest. Each pathway is accompanied by a precise estimate of travel time to the final destination. Zooming in on the target area, she switches to satellite images and interprets them in shades of blue, purple, and green. At each checkpoint, the team reports its progress and gets a revised estimate of arrival time. Beset by difficulties, the explorers ask for a faster route, but the computer says the alternative is too dangerous. A simulation model with data representing geology, terrain, vegetation, weather, and many other geographic factors predicts local hazards, including the impending eruption of a nearby volcano. The Americans take the faster route anyway and beat the odds. This fictional account of emerging geographic information system (GIS) technologies comes from Michael Crichton`s 1980 novel Congo, which was made into a 1995 movie. The same technologies were highlighted in Clive Cussler`s 1988 techno-thriller Treasure. In reality, GIS technology began more than a quarter of a century ago at key universities and government laboratories in the United States and Canada. Since 1969, Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been among the leading institutions in this diverse, now booming field. GIS has been evolving through new forms and applications ever since.
- OSTI ID:
- 241150
- Journal Information:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review, Vol. 28, Issue 1; Other Information: PBD: 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Improving exploration with geographical information system (GIS) technology
Improving exploration with geographical information system (GIS) technology