Assignment:
In JP 2-03, the Four Steps of Geospatial Intelligence Preparation of the Environment are discussed. They are:
1. Define the Environment
2. Describe Influences of the Environment
3. Assess Threats and Hazards
4. Develop Analytic Conclusions1
The first step noted is defining the environment. In this case this also carries with it articulating the human as well as spatial elements, and how they affect one another to produce an "environment" in the geospatial sense.
Discussion Requirement:
From your readings this week, particularly the material found in Batson's Registering the Human Terrain: A Valuation of Cadastre, discuss the following observation made by Jerome E. Dobson in the context of integrating human terrain into geospatial intelligence analyses. Discuss how human terrain analysis enriches the geospatial intelligence assessment.
...Geography is to space what history is to time. It is a spatial way of thinking, a science with distinctive methods and tools, a body of knowledge about places, and a set of information technologies that have been around for centuries. Geography is about understanding people and places and how real-world places function in a viscerally organic sense. It's about understanding spatial distributions and interpreting what they mean. It's about using technology to study, in the words of the late professor J.
Rowland Illick, "why people do what they do where they do it." Geography is a dimensional science, based on spatial logic in which locations, flows, and spatial associations are considered to be primary evidence of earth processes, both physical and cultural. Its hallmarks are spatial analysis, place-based research (e.g., regional, area, and urban studies) and scientific integration.