ERDC Co-Planner of 5th Spatial Socio-Cultural Knowledge Workshop

Published July 6, 2012

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SHRIVENHAM, United Kingdom – ERDC and the United Kingdom’s Defence Geographic Centre co-planned the recent 5th Spatial Socio-Cultural Knowledge Workshop at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, located in Shrivenham.

The workshop provided a forum to bring together experts from the stabilization, disaster relief and geospatial communities to develop the case for a shared understanding of how geography can be used to support stabilization and disaster relief operations. Workshop participants investigated the need for a shared geospatial framework in anticipation of stabilization and disaster relief operations, while answering what is required, what exists, how to organize it, and who authorizes it.

Attendance was up sharply from previous years, with representatives from the U.S. African Command (AFRICOM), European Command (EUCOM) and Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the National Geospatial Agency, the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Army Training and Doctrine’s (TRADOC) Cultural Knowledge Consortium.

The U.K. Hydrographic Office’s assistant chief of the defence staff (intelligence capabilities) Air Vice-Marshall Jon Rigby, gave the keynote address.  ERDC’s Dr. Justin Berman, with the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, along with Swathi Veeravalli and Elizabeth Lyon, from the Topograhic Engineering Center, gave presentations.

Plans for the 6th Spatial Socio-Cultural Knowledge Workshop in 2013 are already under way.