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As a stand-alone software application, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's "Contingency Base Site Identification for the Tactical Environment" provides military planners with the ability to remotely sense potential CB site locations through weighted algorithms based upon military planning factors.
The CB-SITE functional prototype displays physical, natural, and sociocultural OE-specific data.
CB-SITE Provides military planners with the ability to remotely sense potential contingency base site locations through weighted algorithms based upon military planning factors. These are some of the aspects considered in CB-SITE analysis.
Users tested prototypes of CB-SITE for site selection. On the first screen, the user selects locations based on COCOM.
ENSITE is dedicated to empowering military planners with the data and knowledge for siting base camps. Base camp locations and designs are not one-size-fits all, rather they should be viewed as a multi-layer decision process to support the mission and commander’s intent. The built, ecological, and sociocultural environments impact military bases and, in turn, bases affect those environments. Failure to understand these effects may result in increased logistical burdens and unintended consequences on local populations and natural resources—negatively impacting the military mission.
ENSITE builds upon leading geospatial platforms already in use by the Army (including ESRI ArcMap®) in order to offer an easy-to-use, customized set of workflows that remotely evaluates the built, natural, and social characteristics of a location in support of siting contingency bases. With such a tool, planners (as well as designers, operators, and managers) can rapidly assess possible current and future situations to provide proactive operational control and timely alternative situational analyses while deployed or as part of their training programs.
The software capability supports the full lifecycle of the base—design, construction, operations/management, and deconstruction—with software components that add specific functions and features while minimizing complexity for the end user. This flexibility and lightness allows users to deploy ENSITE into the field. ENSITE combines Army doctrine, open-source data, and authoritative Army data in conjunction with user input to execute automated processes capable of processing large amounts of environmental data in a rapid, consistent, and standardized manner.
ENSITE is constructed as a collection of software capabilities developed for integrating and visualizing data of the built, natural, and social environment to support site analysis in answering the following questions.
Below lists some of the core capabilities, or tools, currently available in ENSITE. New tools are continuously developed, as such, users may request specific applications.
ENSITE is transitioning into two of the Army’s Programs of Records—ERDC’s Map Based Planning Services (MBPS) and AGC’s Instrument Set, Reconnaissance and Surveying (ENFIRE). ENSITE assists MBPS with strategic decision making, and supports ENFIRE with site selection and surveying for Engineer Units.
ERDCinfo@usace.army.mil, 217 373-3341 Updated 25 August 2020
Environmental Processes Branch | Construction Engineering Research Laboratory U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center