One of the projects in which the gvSIG suite has been used in the last year is the creation of a geographic database of improvised explosive devices for MINUSMA, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali.

The so-called IED (improvised explosive device) are explosive devices that are normally detonated by remote control and one of its main objectives is the convoy attacks. The incidents related to IED, that caused the implementation of the project, had been increased in Mali considerably in recent years.

Before carrying out of the project, despite the use of GPS tracking, troops navigation was very complicated due to the absence of cartography and the lack of updated maps of potential threats of IED. Convoys didn’t know exactly when they accessed to a vulnerable area.

To solve this circumstance, a webgis solution was launched for the creation of digital maps of threats of IED and a mobile application was developed for consulting this information in offline mode. All this based on gvSIG Online, the open source software of the gvSIG Association aimed to the Spatial Data Infrastructures and Geoportals implementation.

The workflow that was launched allows to automatically convert the database of IED made by tactical analysts into a geospatial database, also generating digital maps and their corresponding geoportals automatically with all the information about vulnerable areas. All this information is also accessible in offline mode by the troops through a mobile application.

The mobile application allows to access to the different projects, allowing to download or update all the information related to a specific operation to work offline. Once the project is downloaded offline, the troops can consult all the graphic and alphanumeric information and associated multimedia contents (such as images). It also allows to track the position of the convoy using the GPS device, locating all the relevant information around the convoy.

A good example of using gvSIG technology in critical scenarios.