Integration of geographic information technologies and digital image processing for responding to emergency situations at oil pipeline transportation facilities

Abstract

In this article, we consider an approach to integrating geoinformation technologies and digital image processing methods aimed at increasing the efficiency of computer technologies in controlling complex distributed systems (CDS) in emergency situations. The analysis is conducted using an example of the activity of oil pipeline transport enterprises, including pipelines, oil pumping stations, administrative, repair and emergency response units. The novelty of the proposed version of integration of geoinformation technologies and digital image processing consists in the application of a set-theoretic approach to a uniform formal description of various types of spatial data, digital images and their interrelationships necessary for constructing three-dimensional models of production facilities of CDS. This has allowed criteria, composition and structure of these 3D models to be defined using different levels of detail of the object models in order to reduce the computational load and speed up the 3D visualization of objects of CDS. These are necessary to support the decision-making when responding to certain types of emergency situations. The advantage of the proposed approach is that it increases the efficiency of decision-making support in countering some emergencies, which, among others, is achieved through the use of three-dimensional visualization of technological and operational (obtained in the event of an accident) information about the production facilities of the CDS, whereas the quality and fullness of the optimized 3D model directly affect the decisions made in response to the emergencies. The developed methods and algorithms have been practically implemented when building 3D geoinformation models.