Enabling Engineer Officers as Terrain Experts (Paperback or Softback)

Terrain is a permanent and important aspect of all military operations. Today, the military study of terrain is called geospatial engineering, and it is the responsibility of engineers to maximize its effect for the tactical echelons of the Army. Engineer officers are the commanders' terrain experts armed with distinct skills, knowledge, and behaviors (tasks). From a review of doctrinal, historical, anecdotal, and periodical sources, seventy-three essential geospatial tasks emerged. These tasks cover the geospatial engineering functions found in the Army Universal Task List in Field Manual 7-15 and support a definition for the terrain expert role. Forty-nine of the seventy-three tasks are taught in an institutional setting at the US Army Engineer School and the National Geospatial and Intelligence School. Recommendations are provided on how to improve training for these tasks and for the twenty-four tasks not yet taught. A five-step geospatial engineering process is also recommended to facilitate officer proficiency and application of geospatial engineering. Finally, several other geospatial engineering considerations are provided for further research into the conceptual skills required for terrain visualization and expertise.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.