GEOINT Role in Responding to Hurricane Katrina
The American federal government's response operation in the aftermath of the 2005 disaster, Hurricane Katrina, establishes a crucial military necessity of improving the nation's evaluation, decision-making, and response processes. Operational art, design and other similar concepts apparently offer a means for framing the operational issue. However, both the aforementioned elements are unable to effectively improve commanders' capacity of grasping the condition. Processes like those mentioned above prove inadequate when it comes to solving key questions and conveniently translating into missions for troops to execute. The process of situation evaluation commences with the examination of a map by military staff members and commands. This is where GEOINT (Geospatial Intelligence) comes in. GEOINT refers to an emergent subfield in the intelligence domain responsible for offering comprehensive information analyses, an operational environment evaluation, and a way to examine potential issues which might surface. GEOINT represents the utilization and examination of geospatial information and imagery for describing, evaluating, and visually depicting geographically-indicated activities and physical features on our planet.[footnoteRef:1] This paper aims at appraising GEOINT's role with respect to responding to the Hurricane Katrina. [1: Department of Defense. Joint Publication 2-03. Geospatial Intelligence Support to Joint Operations. 31 March 2007.pg vii]
GEOINT's probable value resides in the field's capacity of bringing analysis for informing every phase of the mission command's commander visualization. The Mission Command Field Manual 6-0's Chapter IV states that the commander visualization activity encompasses the intellectual procedure of attaining a clear grasp of the present condition of the force relative to its environment and its adversaries. Commanders constantly create a mental picture of their military operations by means of situation comprehension, operations planning, assessment and implementation.[footnoteRef:2] The foremost step for the commander is: development of situational grasp. In other words, military commanders are required to grasp the situation prior to commencing planning activities. [2: Department of the Army. Field Manual 6-0: Mission Command. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 2003. p.4-0.]
The next step for commanders is contemplating where they need to be headed and how their operations will play out, in addition to understanding the effectiveness of their troops. Operation visualization commences with planning, continuing all through the course of the implementation phase and ending with the step of mission completion. Commanders direct their units' planning endeavors by offering support, ideas on purpose, and key information requirements. The imbedded shared operating image of GEOINT aids commanders in ensuring their visualization remains up to date. Lastly, evaluation takes place in every visualization phase during mission command. At first, commanders will bank on their team members, their own individual experiences, and evaluations from the units charged with mission implementation. GEOINT's capability of organizing facts, querying particular facts, and offering trend analysis services facilitates constant evaluation through each visualization phase. The Geospatial Intelligence process, facilitated by a thorough examination of GISs (geographic information systems) presents to commanders the science which supplements the commander's application of military tactics. GISs facilitate the visualization process by offering software tools which allow multifaceted, complex information display capable of more precisely representing a given scenario. Further, it allows estimations, predictions, and forecasting. GEOINT helps Mission Command through the establishment of a base for collective understanding, besides the capacity...
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