Considerations for an Extended Framework for Interactive Epoch-Era Analysis

Epoch-Era Analysis (EEA) is a framework that supports narrative and computational scenario planning and analysis for both short run and long run futures. Currently EEA is being applied to frame problems faced by the DoD's Engineered Resilient Systems (ERS) efforts. Because of the large amount of data that must be analyzed when extending EEA to large-scale problems, such as those posed by DoD, a “big data” problem is introduced. This motivates the need for extensions to EEA methods that overcome the computational and human cognition issues that arise as a result. The research presented here describes exploratory development of Interactive Epoch-Era Analysis (IEEA) methods, including human interface and reasoning considerations for epoch and era characterizations, as well as single and multi- epoch and era analyses. Visualization techniques and methods for mitigating computational resource restrictions that facilitate improved decision-making are also presented.