Fusion Standards Study

Geosciences can only achieve their potential through the fusion of diverse Earth Observation and socio-economic data and information. In a multiple provider environment, fusion is only possible with an information system architecture based upon open standards. This paper reports on the results of a study of “To-Be” fusion environment based on open standards. Consistent with IEEE definitions, three categories of fusion were used in this study: Sensor Fusion, Feature Fusion and Decision Fusion. A main conclusion is that OGC and other standards are well suited to Sensor Fusion and Feature Fusion; whereas standards for Decision Fusion should be developed further based upon on mash-up technologies of the mass market.