Every professor tells you they want you to think critically. Most of them don’t tell you how to do that. This lesson will teach you to how to use higher-order and critical thinking skills.

Military analyst gathers motorist's vaccination data during government's pandemic response.

Credit: Army Capt. Daniel Parker. Vaccination Appointment. Defense.gov. (Public Domain).

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Define the six elements in Bloom’s Taxonomy, the terms “Higher Order Thinking,” and “Critical Thinking;”
• Explain Facione’s six cognitive skills and the seven affective dispositions toward critical thinking;
• Explain the terms “Higher Order Thinking” and “Critical Thinking;"
• Explain why critical thinking is an essential skill for a citizen in a democratic United States.

Lesson 1 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.

Before we jump into the bulk of the lesson, I would like you to spend a few minutes reflecting on your own critical thinking skills. Please answer the reflection questions here and on the next two pages.

Reflection Opportunity 1

Reflection Opportunity 2

Remember your response here and compare it to the lesson material that follows.

Measured Reasons LLC is an organization that specializes in “assessing reasoning, thinking strategically, and educating for critical thinking.” The following activity was adapted from their Critical Thinking Mindset Self-Rating Form. Below is a self-rating form designed to help you reflect on your critical thinking mindset over the past two days. Please answer each question honestly, considering specific instances from your recent experiences. Once completed, use the scoring guide to interpret your results. Remember, this is an opportunity for personal reflection, and there are no right or wrong answers—only insights into your thinking habits.

Critical Thinking Mindset Self-Rating Form

Answer yes or no to each. Can I name any specific instances over the past two days when:

1. I was courageous enough to ask tough questions about some of my longest held and most cherished beliefs?
2. I backed away from questions that might undercut some of my longest held and most cherished beliefs?
3. I showed tolerance toward the beliefs, ideas, or opinions of someone with whom I disagreed?
4. I tried to find information to build up my side of an argument but not the other side?
5. I tried to think ahead and anticipate the consequences of various options?
6. I laughed at what other people said and made fun of their beliefs, values, opinion, or points of views?
7. I made a serious effort to be analytical about the foreseeable outcomes of my decisions?
8. I manipulated information to suit my own purposes?
9. I encouraged peers not to dismiss out of hand the opinions and ideas other people offered?
10. I acted with disregard for the possible adverse consequences of my choices?
11. I organized for myself a thoughtfully systematic approach to a question or issue?
12. I jumped in and tried to solve a problem without first thinking about how to approach it?
13. I approached a challenging problem with confidence that I could think it through?
14. I instead of working through a question for myself, took the easy way out and asked someone else for the answer?
15. I read a report, newspaper, or book chapter or watched the world news or a documentary just to learn something new?
16. I put zero effort into learning something new until I saw the immediate utility in doing so?
17. I showed how strong I was by being willing to honestly reconsider a decision?
18. I showed how strong I was by refusing to change my mind?
19. I attended to variations in circumstances, contexts, and situations in coming to a decision?
20. I refused to reconsider my position on an issue in light of differences in context, situations, or circumstances?

Adapted from © 2009 Measured Reasons LLC, Hermosa Beach, CA. Used with permission.

What is critical thinking? What is critical thinking not? Thinking critically can help you work methodically through problems in the workplace. It may help you sift through relevant information more efficiently and help you prioritize tasks. In your personal life it can help you decipher things like medical information to help you be a better consumer and advocate for yourself. Please view the video below about critical thinking.

Video: What is Critical Thinking (2:30)

Peter A. Facione, an expert in the field, wrote a report that contains the following consensus statement regarding critical thinking (CT). A definition of critical thinking is contained within.

"We understand critical thinking to be purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based. CT is essential as a tool of inquiry. As such, CT is a liberating force in education and a powerful resource in one's personal and civic life. While not synonymous with good thinking, CT is a pervasive and self rectifying human phenomenon. The ideal critical thinker is habitually inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason, open minded, flexible, fair-minded in evaluation, honest in facing personal biases, prudent in making judgments, willing to reconsider, clear about issues, orderly in complex matters, diligent in seeking relevant information, reasonable in the selection of criteria, focused in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results which are as precise as the subject and the circumstances of inquiry permit. Thus, educating good critical thinkers means working toward this ideal. It combines developing CT skills with nurturing those dispositions which consistently yield useful insights and which are the basis of a rational and democratic society."

Benjamin Bloom and his taxonomy

"Creativity follows mastery, so mastery of skills is the first priority for young talent."

Benjamin Bloom (1913-1999) was a highly influential psychologist and educator. Bloom's Taxonomy is a foundation of modern education theory.

One way to foster critical thinking skills is to think about our own learning at a meta level. How do skills build upon one another? Benjamin Bloom developed a taxonomy that helps educators use shared vocabulary and/or verbs to align their teaching practices with outcomes and related assessments so that we can continually scaffold toward higher-order thinking.

For example, a very young child may think that the game of football is simply a mass of people jumping into a pile after an odd-shaped ball. As they learn the subskills of catching and passing, they are demonstrating greater skill. Then, later, when a player has developed a playbook and can adapt to situations on the field, they are synthesizing their skills, while their coaches help them to evaluate their performance and up their skills for the next game. Where are you in your development with the material in this course? Where will you go next, and what do you need to work on?

The video below provides some background about Bloom's taxonomy and its usefulness in an educational setting. Prior to viewing, reflect on a topic that you have considerable knowledge about and something that you have only a basic understanding or skill set with. Think about your own skill set within Bloom's taxonomy.

Video: Bloom's Taxonomy: Structuring the Learning Journey (4:47)

Bloom's Taxonomy and related verbs

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a system for organizing levels of knowledge. It is a spectrum of sorts that begins with memorizing basic facts or vocabulary and builds from there when the learner practices and applies learned knowledge to eventually solve problems and to be able to evaluate systems or create something new to add to the topic.

Common action verbs used in each level of Bloom's Taxonomy questions

Click for a text description of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Bloom's Taxonomy

knowledge	comprehension	application	analysis	synthesis	evaluation
define identify describe label list name state match recognize select examine locate memorize quote recall reproduce tabulate tell copy discover duplicate enumerate listen observe omit read recite record repeat retell visualize	explain describe interpret paraphrase summarize classify compare differentiate discuss distinguish extend predict associate contrast convert demonstrate estimate express identify indicate infer relate restate select translate ask cite discover generalize group illustrate judge observe order report represent research review rewrite show trace	solve apply illustrate modify use calculate change choose demonstrate discover experiment relate show sketch complete construct dramatize interpret manipulate paint prepare teach act collect compute explain list operate practice simulate transfer write	analyze compare classify contrast distinguish infer separate explain select categorize connect differentiate divide order prioritize survey calculate conclude correlate deduce devise diagram dissect estimate evaluate experiment focus illustrate organize outline plan question test	design compose create plan combine formulate invent hypothesize substitute write compile construct develop generalize integrate modify organize prepare produce rearrange rewrite adapt anticipate arrange assemble choose collaborate facilitate imagine intervene make manage originate propose simulate solve support test validate	reframe criticize evaluate order appraise judge support compare decide discriminate recommend summarize assess choose convince defend estimate grade measure predict rank score select test argue conclude consider critique debate distinguish editorialize justify persuade rate weigh

Credit: Bloom's Taxonomy Verbs by Fractus Learning from Wikimedia Commons is licensed under the  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. 

 

In the educational realm, Bloom’s has been used to help teachers connect their content and students with objectives or desired outcomes. Modern interpretations of Bloom’s focus more on the act of learning by utilizing verbs that scaffold for higher levels of skill and knowledge, building upon one another, so that learners can develop from basic factual memorization to more elaborate concepts that incorporate these facts. The verbs also lend themselves to learning a continuum of procedures that progress accordingly and can help a learner understand and reflect on their own capabilities.

Foundational Skills

"You must crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run."

What foundational subskills must we develop? In the field of Geospatial Intelligence, what are the building blocks that form one’s basis of understanding, and what kinds of actions do we need to demonstrate to experience growth and learn and demonstrate knowledge?

Bloom's Taxonomy Foundational Skills

Credit: Bloom's Taxonomy by Corydave from Wikimedia Commons is licensed under the  Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

The foundational skills pictured above must be mastered before an individual can master higher-order thinking skills in the future. This often involves the memorization of basic facts and behaviors related to the subject at hand. This brings us to you, the student, interacting with online content. As the adage says, “you get out of it what you put into it.” So having a broader sense of "where you are coming from and where you’re going” can be empowering as you manage your own educational experience. This sort of reflective practice helps you be aware of your own thought processes and development so that you are in greater control of your own destiny. This self-understanding can be defined as your own metacognitive knowledge. Having metacognitive knowledge also helps you in future roles when you are asked to contribute in a team environment or when you’re helping a newer colleague onboard into a new role in an organization.

Higher Order Skills of Bloom's Taxonomy

An analyst must understand how to gather data that can tell where and when an event like a forest fire takes place. They’ll need to understand how to use software to gather the data. But synthesizing the data with other geographical concepts gets them closer to understanding why something happened. The synthesizing process demonstrates a higher level of thinking and understanding about the topic at hand and can contribute to a larger dialogue about addressing future forest fires.

Bloom's Taxonomy higher level thinking skills

Credit: Bloom's Taxonomy by Corydave from Wikimedia Commons is licensed under the  Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

So when someone can combine some background in climatology, along with patterns of data, and maybe some practical knowledge about how governmental mechanisms function in the field- then we are getting closer to answering why something like a forest fire happens and how to adapt our behavior or response accordingly.

Please make sure you read Facione's Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts. You will be assessed on this reading, as well as the rest of the lesson's content in the Lesson 1 quiz. Additionally, please watch the video below about Facione's Critical Thinking. 

Video: The Importance of Critical Thinking Today (2:57)

The following six pages provide an example of higher-order thinking in the context of a military operation by the 450th Movement Control Battalion in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

As heard in Facione's video on the previous page, "Critical thinking is the human process of forming reflective, well-reasoned judgments about what to believe or what to do. As such, it relies on our skills of analysis, interpretation, inference, evaluation, explanation, and, most importantly, self-reflection."

Credit: Critical Thinking Skills by Facione is under the Creative Commons 4.0 International License.

Cognitive Skills

• Interpretation
• Analysis
• Evaluation
• Inference
• Explanation
• Self-Regulation

Critical Spirit

The experts also said that a true critical thinker has a critical spirit. This is not to say that they are by any means negative or mean. It does mean that they have:

"a probing inquisitiveness, keenness of mind, a zealous dedication to reason, and a hunger or eagerness for reliable information."

What kind of person would be apt to use their critical thinking skills? Take a moment and reflect on people you interact with on a daily basis, who you consider to possess critical thinking skills. What adjectives or dispositions characterize behaviors that are demonstrated? How can you add to your own critical thinking skill set? Facione's research, in conjunction with expert opinion, has devised the seven dispositions toward critical thinking below.

Seven Dispositions Toward Critical Thinking

• Inquisitive
• Systematic
• Analytical
• Open-minded
• Judicious
• Truth seeking
• Confident in reasoning

A person leads a group dialogue while organizing information on sticky notes.

Credit: jason-goodman-Oalh2MojUuk-unsplash by Jason Goodman is licensed under Unsplash and is free to use.

As you study, ask yourself

• What is the essential element of an argument or position?
• Is there a hidden agenda?
• What is the essential information to support the argument?
• Are the facts true or are they only assumptions?

3 Dots represented within a spoken blurb

Credit: Orange sheets of paper lie on a green school board and form a chat bubble with three crumpled papers by Volodymyr Hryshchenko is licensed under Unsplash and is free to use.

• What information would weaken or refute the argument?
• Is this information available elsewhere, but not provided in the article?
• What information would significantly strengthen the argument?
• Is it available, and is it false or true?
• What correlation or associations are suggested?

The Critical Thinking Community

Take a look at the website for "The Critical Thinking Community." As you can see, there is a lot of thought and effort that goes into this important topic. The Foundation for Critical Thinking (which hosts the aforementioned website) publishes a series of excellent small books, such as:

• Paul, Richard, and Linda Elder. (2003). The Thinker's Guide For Students On How to Study & Learn. Dillon Beach, CA: The Foundation for Critical Thinking.
• Paul, Richard, and Linda Elder. (2004). The Thinker's Guide to The Nature and Functions of Critical & Creative Thinking. Dillon Beach, CA: The Foundation for Critical Thinking, pp. 21-47.

These books are available as hard copies from the Penn State Libraries.

Summary

In this lesson about the importance of critical thinking, we covered:

• What is it?
• Who cares?
• Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Facione Reading Assignment
• Cognitive Skills
• Seven Affective Dispositions Toward Critical Thinking

Final Tasks

Your last challenge this week is to take Lesson 1 - GRADED Quiz (#1) on this week's material.

Before you move on to Lesson 2, double-check the Lesson 1 Checklist to make sure you have completed all the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Ahead

• Class Discussion & Thinking Critically about Geography Fundamentals.

In this lesson, we are going to discuss definitions of geospatial intelligence, the scope of the subject, and examine why geography as a subject and a discipline is fundamental to the idea of geospatial intelligence. For those of you out there who are geospatial intelligence practitioners and professionals, the definition of geospatial intelligence may seem obvious, i.e., "geospatial intelligence is what my agency says it is, and the scope encompasses what we do..." However, as you will find out, different people and different agencies have different understandings of the definition and scope of the field.

It also may seem apparent to some that geography and geographical understanding and knowledge obviously underlay any field called "geospatial intelligence." However, it is quite possible that geospatial analysts have very little if any geographic knowledge and understanding. At Penn State, we think that is a real problem and one of the main reasons that a course entitled "Geographic Foundations of Geospatial Intelligence" is the foundation course of the Certificate in Geospatial Intelligence. So here is a fundamental concept of this course:

A reasonable knowledge of geography and associated geographical viewpoints is essential for all practitioners of geospatial intelligence no matter their agency, mission, focus, or specialization.

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• define Kant's three ways of ordering knowledge;
• define "Geography" and discuss the taxonomy of the word;
• define the terms Human Geography, Physical Geography, and Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIS&T); provide examples of each (sub-disciplines); discuss the relationship between the three;
• affirm or criticize, based on your own opinion and experience, the relevance of Human Geography to the field of Geospatial Intelligence;
• argue or defend how the definition of Geospatial Intelligence is socially contested and constructed; provide at least one organizational definition (e.g., NGAs) and argue or defend your own definition;

Lesson 2 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a famous German philosopher who lived in Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He was one of the great thinkers of the European Enlightenment. Among his many ideas was his conception of how all knowledge might be organized. Kant said that there are three ways to organize all knowledge: the topical approach, the chronological approach, and the spatial approach.

• Topical Approach: A topical approach is to know everything about one thing. Thus, political science is a topical approach, as it involves everything about politics. Economics involves everything concerning financial economies, and biology concerns all knowledge about living things.
• Chronological Approach: A chronological approach looks at how things change over time. This is the approach of historians as they examine how the world has changed over time. Historians focus on what has happened in the past.
• Spatial Approach: A spatial approach looks at where things happen and why. This is the fundamental approach of geographers as they try to understand the world in terms of where things happen, why and how they happened there, and the interactions between phenomena in one place relative to phenomena in others.

In reality, few people limit themselves to using only one of these ways of ordering knowledge. Political Scientists may focus on the politics of certain eras or places. Historians may focus on the history of a particular country. And geographers, as we will see, are great synthesists who invariably use the spatial approach in conjunction with topical and chronological approaches. Yet, Kant's three ways of ordering knowledge demonstrates that the spatial approach of the discipline of geography makes geography one of the core scholarly disciplines.

Knowledge Check

People use the word "geography" all the time. And while it has many uses and meanings, most people would be at a loss to define what "geography" is. We are going to examine the definition and scope of geography, but before we do, I want to see how you might define "geography."

Geography Defined

Let us take the word "geography" apart. The word geography can be broken into the two basic elements of "GEO" and "GRAPHY." Geo comes from the Greek word for earth (the word Gaea, also meaning earth, derives from the Greek as well). The "ography" part comes from the Greek word graphein, which is literally to write about something. The word "graph" derives from the same basis.

Thus, GEO + GRAPHY literally means "to write about the earth." We have commonly come to understand that the translation might also be taken to describe and map the Earth. The American Heritage Dictionary defines geography as "the study of the Earth and its features, inhabitants, and phenomena." I agree with the dictionary, but I like to tell my students that geography really is the study of how the world works in terms of the physical and human processes that occur every day.

So for me, Geography is really about how the world works. That is pretty good knowledge for a geospatial analyst to possess.

Breaking it Down

Understanding how the world works is a pretty tall order, so let us break down the study of geography into some manageable parts. At the most basic level, think of geography as a coin with two sides.

• HEADS: On one side, we have Physical Geography, or the study of the spatial distribution and attributes of naturally occurring phenomena.
• TAILS: On the other side, we have Human Geography, or the study of the spatial distribution and attributes of human-induced/engineered phenomena.

Physical geography looks at the natural processes that make the surface of the Earth the way it is. Physical geography includes the three major subdisciplines of Geomorphology, Meteorology, and Climatology.

Geomorphology

Geomorphology is the study of landforms and landform processes. Geomorphologists want to know:

• What are the different landforms?
• Where are the different landforms?
• Why are they where they are?
• How do they form?
• What will happen to them over time?

Meteorology

Meteorology is the study of atmospheric weather processes. Meteorologists want to understand:

• What are the different atmospheric processes that create our weather?
• Where do these weather phenomena occur?
• How and why does the planetary weather system work the way it does?
• What will happen with the weather in the future? (This will allow them to forecast the weather.)

Climatology

Climatology is the study of climate, which is basically the long-term pattern of temperature and precipitation. Climatology, like meteorology, is a branch of the interdisciplinary field of Atmospheric Science. Climatologists seek to understand:

• the different climate types found on Earth;
• the processes that cause these different climate types to occur in specific places (i.e. why are there different climate types);
• the places where these climates occur;
• how and why climates change over time; and
• what will happen to the earth's climate in the future so they can forecast the effects of climate change.

Human geography

Human geography looks at the human activities that make the surface of the earth the way it is. Human geography includes numerous subdisciplines, some of which are:

• population geography
• cultural geography
• economic geography
• political geography
• and many others

Human geography is essentially synthesizing a spatial perspective with one of the topical disciplines to come up with new knowledge and a new perspective to understand how the world works.

Geographic Techniques

The world is fortunate that geographers through the ages have developed a set of spatial tools to help us understand how the world works. These tools are often referred to as the geographic techniques and they include the subdisciplines of:

• Cartography: The art and science of making maps and the oldest of the geographic techniques;
• Remote Sensing: The art and science of obtaining information about the earth by study from afar;
• Geographic Information Systems: A GIS is a computer-based system that collects, stores, analyzes, and displays spatial information to solve problems; and
• Global Positioning Systems: The use of a system of satellites, ground stations, and receivers to obtain precise locational information of phenomena on the earth.

Geospatial intelligence relies heavily on the geographic techniques (collectively known as Geographic Information Science and Techniques (GIS&T or GIScience) for the collection, analysis, and communication of results. Your other coursework will involve very detailed explorations and applications of the geographic techniques.

Knowledge Check

Penn State Public Broadcasting has produced an amazing series of webisodes on the "Geospatial Revolution."

Please take the time to view Episode One of the Geospatial Revolution Series (13:45 running time) and think about how the revolution applies to this lesson.

Video: Geospatial Revolution / Episode One (13:44)

Video: Geospatial Revolution / Episode Five (21:28)

The Relationship of Physical Geography to Human Geography 

In an Introduction to Geography class (usually for freshmen and sophomores), a fellow instructor likes to stress the point that physical and human geography are completely separate disciplines and that there can be NO mixing between the two. In fact, he makes a big deal that students must write this down, and put stars by it in their notes as this important point will most certainly be on the test. He then stops and lets them think about this statement as they dutifully write it down.

Now, you might be thinking that this contention that physical and human geography are completely separate and can never be mixed seems nonsensical—and you would be correct. Eventually, a few of the students start to grin and perhaps a bold one might challenge the instructor (not very often though).

The instructor then gets to point out to the students the fallacy of such a contention and makes the point that physical and human geography, like the sides of a coin, are absolutely inseparable. We know that physical systems can have enormous impacts on human systems (ask the survivors of Hurricane Ida). We also know that human impacts on the environment have been great. As humans have always modified the surface of the planet to scratch out a living or to build great civilizations (western Europe had a climax vegetation of forest—consider the landscape there now—forests are rare, protected, and highly valued).

I think that the geographic subdiscipline of Environmental Geography occupies the space in the center of the coin, gluing human and physical geography together. A problem in many modern geography programs is that students specialize in either human or physical geography with inadequate knowledge of the other side of the coin. The even greater problem is for students who specialize in the geographic techniques (whom I affectionately call "Techno-Geeks") and lack the necessary background in human and physical geography.

The Four Traditions of Geography

There are some other ways to conceptualize the field of geography. Parkinson suggested that geography has four traditions: The Earth Science Tradition, Culture-Environment Tradition, Locational Tradition, and Area Analysis Tradition. Geographic techniques support these traditions. The chart below shows how selected subdisciplines fit within these four traditions.

The Four Traditions of Geography.

Credit: M.Corson. © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

All the subdisciplines, with the exception of the Regional Approach, are topical approaches. The regional approach breaks the Earth down into areas that share certain uniform cultural and physical characteristics. Regional geographers then study the human and physical geography of that particular region. We typically break the world into the cultural regions of North America, South America, Europe, Russia and the Slavic World, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia and Oceania.

Geographic Systems Theory

Yet another approach to understanding the scope of geography is Geographic Systems Theory. A system is a series of components such that, when you add energy to it, the components work together to produce an output. Take for example an automobile. Your gasoline-powered car includes multiple subsystems including the chassis with suspension and tires, the engine, the cooling subsystem, the transmission, the fuel tank (with fuel pump and fuel filter), the steering subsystem, etc. When you add gasoline, the engine generates energy, which the transmission sends to the wheels, which results in the output of the car moving. Open systems exchange both energy and matter with the outside universe. Closed systems exchange only energy.

The earth is a system. Is it a closed system or an open system? The answer is the earth is a closed system in that it exchanges energy with the universe, but it does not exchange any significant amount of matter (space junk and meteorites are insignificant—if the earth is destroyed by an asteroid I will admit I was wrong).

According to Geographic Systems Theory, the Earth has two major sub-subsystems, which are the Physical Subsystem and the Human Subsystem. The Physical Subsystem has four major component subsystems of the Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Lithosphere, and Biosphere. The Human Subsystem has three major components of Beliefs, Institutions, and Technologies.

The two major sub-subsystems of the earth.

Credit: M.Corson. © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

The atmosphere is the gaseous envelope that surrounds the earth and sustains air-breathing animals. The lithosphere is the solid rock and soil that comprises the outer solid layer of the planet. The hydrosphere includes all the liquid and solid water (water vapor is in the atmosphere). These three spheres are "abiotic" in that they are non-living. The final sphere is the biosphere containing all life. The biosphere relies on the other three abiotic spheres to function for it to sustain life.

A critical part of systems theory is understanding that if one system is significantly degraded, then the system function as a whole degrades. And if one system fails, then the whole system fails. If you consider that Planet Earth is the spaceship for the human race, and that we rely on all of its systems to function properly, you start to contemplate why we do not take better care of it. It is the only spacecraft we have and there are no lifeboats.

Geography as Synthesis

Geography is a synthesizing discipline in that geographers take topical subjects and analyze them through the spatial filter, thus seeing the world in new ways. This synthesis is very exciting and liberating in that geographers have the freedom to explore many different subjects and apply topical, chronological, and spatial approaches while integrating both the human and physical world. No other academic discipline takes such a holistic approach, and that makes geography special.

The Necessity for Geographic Literacy

The world is getting smaller, more crowded, and more integrated as the population expands, resources diminish, and globalization brings us all closer together. The US is a "hyper-power" with unprecedented influence around the globe. For the citizens of such a country that is also a democracy comes a duty to be geographically literate—to understand how this planet works in terms of its physical and human geographies. Geographically illiterate citizens will at best be ignorant of what their government is doing globally, and at worst support their government in making bad decisions that are detrimental to national, regional, and global stability and well-being.

Globalization means that America will interact with its global neighbors through combinations of cooperation, competition, and (unfortunately) occasional conflicts. Thus, it is essential that American citizens be geographically literate so that they may hopefully cooperate most of the time, compete some of the time, and occasionally engage in conflict. Viewed this way, geographic illiteracy might be seen as a threat to national security. Of course this is true for citizens of other nations as well, however national rankings of geography literacy show that our neighbors abroad understand the importance of geographic knowledge and do not suffer our illiteracy.

Geographic literacy for intelligence professionals (especially analysts and managers) is especially important. The geospatial intelligence professional must be geographically literate to fully leverage the power of geographic techniques.

To reiterate the fundamental rationale for this course:

A geographically illiterate analyst or manager is likely to produce flawed analyses and poor decisions. In the national security arena, this could result in disastrous policy decisions. In the disaster relief/international humanitarian aid arena, this might result in wasted resources and lost lives.

If you get the feeling I am passionate about this topic—you are right. I am on a mission to stamp out geographic illiteracy, one classroom full of ignorant people at a time. That is a major motivation for me to teach this course to current and future geospatial intelligence professionals.

Click the following link to access a PowerPoint Presentation with a review of the Definition, Nature, and Scope of Geography.

Click the thumbnail below to see the pdf version of my Geographic Fundamentals of Geospatial Intelligence ppt. 

As I said in the introduction, many of the GEOINT practitioners figure they know the definition of geospatial intelligence—it is what their agency says it is and it is what they do.

The United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency or NGA —as the name implies— is the primary government agency responsible in the US for geospatial intelligence. The NGA's mission is to "provide world-class geospatial-intelligence and lead the Global GEOINT Enterprise." The NGA defines GEOINT as:

"The exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess, and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth. GEOINT consists of imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial information."

But language is powerful, and words have different meanings to different people. If we are to think critically, we must go beyond accepting things at face value and do some analysis, synthesis, and evaluation to ultimately come to a judgment about the information. As we learn to apply critical approaches, you will find that a key question concerns power relationships. For example, as you research definitions of GEOINT, you will find that the NGA definition dominates. But why is that so? Why are alternative definitions not readily evident when you do a Google or other search? The answer may be that the NGA is a powerful government agency with lots of money and employees. The sheer size of their organization makes their definition dominant in the literature, media, and on the web. The NGA is also a part of the US Department of Defense and is both a national intelligence agency and a combat support agency. NGA's place in the government will naturally focus it on national security and military issues. As you analyze and evaluate the NGA definition, is it necessarily the last word? Are there other definitions? Are there other applications besides national security applications?

Air Force Airman 1st Class Elizabeth Rodriguez levels a geospatial surveying instrument at Kadena Air Base, Japan, June 9, 2021. The instrument calculates relative distance, direction and elevation — calculations that are then uploaded to update geographical information.

Credit: Air Force Airman 1st Class Stephen Pulter. Geospatial Survey. Defense.gov. (Public Domain).

I want to share a story with you. Getting this geospatial intelligence program approved took a lot of negotiation between different groups within the Penn State Geography Faculty. The members of the faculty, who come from technical geography backgrounds and/or the military and who work with NGA and other agencies, initially envisioned the program as predominantly a technical course of study in support of the traditional US national defense mission. We will call this the traditional technical security discourse.

Another group of faculty members, however, coming from human geography backgrounds, were uncomfortable with this primarily technical and security approach. They proposed an alternative discourse that went beyond security to encompass disaster preparedness and international disaster relief applications (as well as some other applications). They also insisted that critical thinking skills and geographic knowledge that goes beyond the techniques were absolutely essential to support the ultimate goal of producing skilled geospatial intelligence analysts. We will call this the human discourse.

Ozone analysis map showing ozone hole over Antarctic continent. Data obtainedSolar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV/2) instrument.Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV/2)

Credit: spac011112422.jpg. photolib.noaa.gov. (Public Domain).

So the lesson here is that "Geospatial Intelligence" is not a naturally occurring phenomenon that has a "correct" definition that is fixed in stone. Geospatial Intelligence in terms of its definition and scope is a socially contested and constructed concept. To understand that human activities are socially contested and constructed, it is very instructive to study the underlying power relationships. Even the NGA definition and scope were socially constructed as different elements of the agency negotiated the creation of the official definition. This process is continuous.

This story has a happy ending. The social negotiation that took place, resulted in a compromise that retained the key elements of the technical/security discourse, while expanding the scope of the program to include emphasis on critical thinking and other applications of GEOINT (although not all possible applications). At the end of the day, all concerned felt that the program was far better for the input of both sides. This viewpoint was subsequently validated when outside agencies were shown the program and voiced their enthusiasm and support for it.

The major evaluated activity for this lesson is the Lesson 2 - GRADED Discussion Forum (#1). To prepare for the activity, I want you to do a web search and see if you can find some alternative definitions and applications of geospatial intelligence. We will be particularly interested in the nature of the organizations that have alternative definitions and applications. If you find some sites that you think other people in the class might find useful, consider adding the URL to the class "Webliography." (See panel below.)

Knowledge Check

An online discussion forum is the equivalent to a traditional graduate school classroom seminar. I expect you to have studied the online lesson, read the assigned readings, and conducted some web research as indicated in the lesson. When you access the graded online discussion forum for Lesson 2, you will find two discussion questions to get the ball rolling. The minimum requirement is that each of you post one primary response to each of my questions and comment at least twice on your classmates' posts. The idea here is to have an online conversation so that we can explore different ideas and alternative ways of seeing things. I expect you to demonstrate critical thinking and challenge the ideas of your classmates and yourselves. However, I know all of you will treat each other with dignity and respect and keep the discussion collegial and professional. I will moderate and facilitate the discussion, but do not be surprised if I have limited input. The function of the online discussion just as the traditional graduate seminar is for you to learn from each other. I encourage you to bring your own experiences and opinions into the discussion. That makes it so much more interesting.

Summary

In this lesson, we looked at Kant's three ways of ordering knowledge. We discussed definitions of geography and geospatial intelligence, the scope of the subject, and examined why geography as a subject and a discipline is fundamental to the idea of geospatial intelligence, and you read "Why Geography Matters." We also noted that different people and different agencies have different understandings of the definition and scope of the field. The lesson also included a brief discussion of how this course grew from a predominantly national security based course to include disaster preparedness, and international humanitarian aid.

Final Tasks

Before you move on to Lesson 3, double-check the Lesson 2 Checklist to make sure you have completed all the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Ahead

In our next lesson, we focus on academic and professional writing.  Your deliverable is a critical analysis which will give you the opportunity to demonstrate your higher order and critical thinking skills. 

You now possess a basic understanding of higher order and critical thinking skills, as well as some knowledge about the nature of geography, and the definitions of geospatial intelligence. This lesson capitalizes on that base of knowledge, and gives you the opportunity to demonstrate and improve your professional and academic writing skills.

To exercise our recently acquired critical thinking skills and geographic knowledge, we are going to carefully read the works of several eminent scholars: Samuel Huntington, Stephen Walt, and Edward Said. Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations?" was a provocative article that articulated a new geopolitical discourse for the post-Cold War era. Published in Foreign Affairs in 1993, it created an immediate stir and resulted in a book length treatment of the idea by the same name. Steven Walt is a professor of international relations at Harvard. He challenged Huntington’s clash theory in his article “Building up New Bogymen” published in Foreign Policy in 1997. Edward Said was a Palestinian-American scholar of the Middle East famous for his writings on orientalism. Said countered Huntington's discourse in his article "The Clash of Ignorance" published in The Nation in 2001. Works of both Huntington and Said are still frequently referenced and cited. For example, see recent articles on Huntington and Said.

You will have the pleasure of writing your first critical analysis paper as your deliverable for this lesson. For many of you, this will be a challenge as you have not written a graduate level paper employing critical thinking skills. However, the ability to clearly and concisely articulate your critically derived thoughts is another essential skill for the geospatial intelligence professional in any agency or organization.

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• analyze multiple sources challenging and supporting a particular thesis (Huntingdon's Clash of Civilizations thesis);
• defend your own analysis using your higher order and critical thinking skills;
• write a graduate level academic paper.

Lesson 3 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.

You might find doing research somewhat daunting, but you probably do research all the time. Consider planning a vacation. You most probably don’t just jump in the car and drive off with no destination in mind (OK maybe some of you do—to each their own). You go through a process to plan out your vacation and this includes research.

Brigham Young University Library lays out six steps to doing research.

Step 1: Find and narrow your topic

Say your daughter lives in China and you would like to take a vacation to China. You have narrowed the topic of your vacation to China.

For your first paper, you have a very specific topic and your instructor has done step one for you.

Step 2: Finding articles

Now that we want to go to China, we can start our research going from the general to the specific. You can use the internet to look up articles on China in general and then zoom in on travel articles specifically.

In academic writing, articles come in many different flavors. You could use a general internet search, a more specialized search such as Google Scholar, or a library (you have access to the Penn State Library online) that has subscriptions to specialized databases with academic articles.

You may find some articles in trade journals such as NGA’s Pathfinder magazine. These are good sources but such articles are usually not “peer reviewed”. Articles in academic journals have been vetted through a process of blind peer review and thus have the stamp of approval of a particular academic discipline. Let us say you write a research article based on data you collected. You submit your article to an academic journal. The editor of the journal removes anything identifying you as the author and sends it out to two or three reviewers who have expertise with your topic. The reviewers look at your data sources, collection methods, analytical methods, literature review, etc., as well as your organization and writing style. They then recommend to the editor that they accept, accept with revision, or reject your article. This peer review process ensures the quality of the work and is a key institutional stamp of approval. University professors must often have a sustained record of peer-reviewed research publications to get tenured and promoted.

One other thought on journal articles: don’t just pick the first two you find. You should read the abstract of a few that sound interesting before selecting them and diving into the analysis.

Step 3: Finding Books

Books can be an excellent source for in-depth information. In our China trip example, you might find a book on the history and geography of China to give you deep background on the country and ideas for places to visit.

Books can be expensive so using the Penn State Library is a good idea. The library has access to many e-books. If you find a book that is not available as an e-book, you can request that the book be mailed to you, free of charge.

Step 4: Evaluating Credibility

This step is key. As you look at sources, you want to understand if they are commercial, government, academic, news, or opinion-making oriented. In our China example, is our source an advertisement from a tour company, a travel advisory from the US Department of State, an individual review based on a personal experience, or a peer-reviewed academic journal article?

Take for example a student paper on the pros and cons of gun control in America. How credible would you consider an opinion piece (with no citations) in the magazine American Rifleman (which is the official journal of the National Rifle Association)?

For this week’s assignment, you would do well to use reputable academic journal articles.

Step 5: Accessing and storing your sources

For big research projects like a major research paper, master's thesis, or PhD dissertation which might have tens or hundreds of sources you should consider using a source management and archive tool. Ask your research librarian for help.

Step 6: Citing your sources

You must cite your sources!  Most students understand that you must cite your sources. If you do not, then you are indicating that the ideas are your original work—and that is plagiarism and academic dishonesty.

But there is another key reason we cite our sources in academic work, and that is to help other scholars conduct their research. Readers must be able to understand where your ideas came from, and must be able to easily access the original source you used. This helps them verify your use of the source, and more importantly, allows them to go to that source and look at your source’s sources. In this way, a scholar can follow links in a chain to help with their own research. Many sources are now found online. Ensure you provide the full universal resource locator (URL or web address) preferably as a clickable link in your citation.

This week’s lesson has detailed technical instructions on how to cite your sources in text and how to provide a full bibliographic reference in the “Works Cited” section at the end of the paper. Every citation must have a bibliographic reference in Works Cited.

Students who do not cite their sources get an automatic “REDO” on the paper and a very cross look from the instructor.

Penn State Library

Penn State has a great library with many resources for online students. Here are some key links:

Online Students Use of the Library

Research: Penn State University Libraries

College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Librarian

The intelligence writing style may be different than what most of you are familiar with. Because intelligence analysis requires clarity and precision, the written text explaining your analysis must also be clear and precise. For these reasons, please review the Writing Guidelines adopted from the text, "Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Critical Thinking through Writing" by David Cariens.

Rules for Intelligence Writing

From "Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Critical Thinking through Writing," (2012) p. 18.

Writing is thinking on paper. When you write you give the reader a glimpse of your thinking abilities-you are saying something about yourself. Like it or not, people form images about you based on how you write. If there are a number of spelling or grammar mistakes, what are you saying about yourself - that you are careless, not well educated, lack pride? Writing can be easy if you will remember a few simple rules:

Rule One: Think before you write. Know what you want to say before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
Rule Two: Organize your thoughts. If you are writing a longer paper or memorandum, take time to organize your thought so you can present a logical argument.
Rule Three: Use simple sentences wherever possible-in the active voice.
Rule Four: Pick your words carefully. Use shorter English words based on the Anglo-Saxon roots of the language. Usually these words are clear and void of nuance and innuendo.
Rule Five: Pursue the economy of language. Make each word count and use familiar terms.
Rule Six: Make the majority of your sentences short and to the point.
Rule Seven: Self-edit and proofread.

The Intelligence Style is expository writing. It is plain talk, straightforward and matter-of-fact communication. Expository writing efficiently conveys ideas, requires precision, and stresses clarity. A major goal of expository writing is to never make the reader wonder what the main point is in the paper or paragraph. Expository writing emphasizes the use of the active voice.

Basic Principles of Analytic Writing

From "Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Critical Thinking through Writing," (2012) pp. 87-88.

1. Put your conclusion(s) first. If the reader reads nothing else, he or she will know from the topic sentence of the first paragraph the main intelligence point or conclusion you want to make.
2. Organize your analysis by your topic sentences. Make sure the topic sentences of each succeeding paragraph ties to, explains, or advances your analysis.
3. Know the formats your intelligence organization uses and know when to use them.
4. Be precise: pick your words carefully so that you are sure you are conveying the right message.
5. Be economical in your use of words-avoid adjectives and adverbs.
6. Clarity trumps all else in intelligence writing. Your intelligence analysis must not leave the reader wondering what you mean or why you decided to write.
7. Know when to use the active voice and when to use the passive voice  [note: while this is David Carien's perspective, do not use passive voice in this class].
8. Self-edit and then welcome the editorial review of others.
9. Know the reader’s needs-know why the reader needs to take the time to read what you have written.

Mistakes

From "Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Critical Thinking through Writing," (2012) p. 41.

Six mistakes are common to all new intelligence analysts, mistakes that must be corrected to have a career in intelligence analysis:

1. Breaking away from the more verbose academic writing style. The simple truth is, if you cannot write in the tighter intelligence style, you do not have a career.
2. Being content with throwing down numbers and facts and not making judgments. These analysts do not identify gaps in knowledge, nor do they identify opportunities. In the case of new law enforcement analysts, they do not make recommendations.
3. When new analysts do make judgments, they do not give their strongest evidence to support their analysis.
4. When they write, they often write something that is very interesting, but their draft is not intelligence-it does not address an intelligence problem or question.
5. They do not conceptualize their main point at the outset, and their drafts do not have an angle. If the intelligence is not clear, if there is no indication as to why a policy-maker should take his or her time to read their product, they have lost the reader.
6. They overuse adjectives and colorful language; their goal seems to be to elicit an emotional response. The net result is sensationalism. This emotionalism undercuts the objectivity and credibility of the intelligence.

References

Cariens, D. J. (2012). Intelligence and crime analysis. Lulu.com. 

Your assignment is to write a critical analysis paper of 1000 words (plus or minus 10%), which is about four double-spaced pages in a 12-point font. Ensure you have a title and your name on the paper. Use one-inch margins all around and please use either Times Roman or Arial as your font.

Organization

Your paper must be well organized with an introductory paragraph that clearly states your thesis/purpose and outlines the supporting points you will be addressing for your audience. You may want to begin your paper with, "The purpose of this paper is to …" The body of the paper follows with paragraphs in logical succession that allows you to make your point. Finish with a conclusion that very briefly summarizes the paper and powerfully ends with your concluding statement.

Citing Your Sources

Cite your sources in text using the format of (author date), e.g. (Corson 2000). Include a “Works Cited” section at the end of your paper using the bibliographical reference format below.

Multi-authored journal article:

Palka, Eugene J., Francis A. Galgano, and Mark W. Corson (2006) "Operation Iraqi Freedom: A Military Geographical Perspective," The Geographical Review Vol. 95, No. 3, pp. 373-399.

Single authored journal article:

Corson, Mark W. (2000), "Hazardscapes in Reunified Germany." Environmental Hazards. Vol. 1, No. 2.

Book Chapter:

Corson, Mark W. and Eugene J. Palka (2004), "Geotechnology, the US Military, and War," in Geography and Technology edited by Stanley D. Brunn, Susan L. Cutter, and JW Harrington Jr. Dordrect: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Book:

Corson, Mark W. (2007), I Wish I had Written a Book (New York: No Such Publisher).

Page Numbers

Please insert page numbers at the bottom of the pages. You may also include images, maps, charts, etc. Please ensure you include captions and reference any graphics in the text. Captions do not count against your 1000 words. Cite the source of the graphic in the caption, e.g. "author's photo."

Voice

Write your paper in active voice and avoid passive voice. Passive voice begs the question of who or what is the subject. For example, “You have been ordered to attack the hill” is passive voice. It begs the question who ordered me to attack that dangerous hill? Active voice puts the subject at the front of the sentence. “General Corson orders you to attack the hill” is active voice. Active voice also makes you take responsibility for your writing and helps you avoid imprecise language.

Writing in the third person (thus avoiding I, we, us, and our) helps writers maintain their objectivity and avoid personalizing the work. Your analysis and judgment must stand on its own. Do not assume the reader knows the assignment or has read the lesson or readings.

As indicated above, we write in third person in academic and professional writing. First person is “I, we, us, our”. Second person is “you, your”. Third person is “the author, this paper, Corson”. For example, “I want you to write in third person” is first person. “You must write in third person” is second person. “Corson contends that academic writing is done in third person” is third person.

Punctuation

Note the difference between a comma, semi-colon, and colon.

A comma indicates a pause between parts of a sentence. It is also used to separate items in a list and to mark the place of thousands in a large numeral. (Dictionary.com)

The most common semicolon use is joining two independent clauses without using a coordinating conjunction like and. Semicolons can also replace commas when listing items that already use commas, such as listing cities and states. (Grammerly.com)

The colon (:) is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots aligned vertically. A colon often precedes an explanation, a list, or a quoted sentence. It is also used between hours and minutes in time, between certain elements in medical journal citations, between chapter and verse in Bible citations, and, in the US, for salutations in business letters and other formal letter writing. (Wikipedia.com)

Bloom's Taxonomy

Please review Bloom's taxonomy and note what I mean when I say demonstrate higher order thinking skills.

• Knowledge - is the lowest level of learning outcomes. Memorizing and recalling a wide range of facts, data, or even complete theories falls into this category. Being able to remember and regurgitate facts from reading assignments is an example of this category. This is NOT an acceptable level of scholarship for graduate studies.
• Comprehension - occurs when you understand the meaning of the material. You can demonstrate comprehension by interpreting the material through explanation or summation, by showing effects or consequences, or by translating the material from one form to another. While comprehension is critically important, it is still NOT an acceptable level of scholarship in graduate study.
• Application - is the ability to take knowledge that you comprehend and apply it to new situations. This could include applying new methods, principles, concepts, theories, or laws to new situations. Application demonstrates higher order thinking than simple memorization and comprehension and will often be required in follow-on technically oriented courses.
• Analysis - is essentially taking something and breaking it apart to see how it works. Deconstructing something to see its component parts and how they relate to the organizational structure are good examples of analysis. Analysis is higher order thinking because it requires an understanding of both the content and structure of the material in question. Graduate level coursework will often ask you to analyze something as part of an assignment.
• Synthesis - is essentially taking several different ideas and putting them together to form a new whole. This might mean taking numerous research sources, analyzing them, and then taking select components to build a new idea presented as a paper or presentation. Synthesis stresses being creative in formulating new patterns, ideas, or structures. Your reflection papers, case studies, and research papers will often demand that you synthesize various inputs.
• Evaluation - is the ability to make judgments about the usefulness, value, or veracity of given material for a specific purpose. The judgment must be based on definite criteria rather than instinct, faith, or feeling. These criteria may be external (relevance to purpose) or internal (organizational criteria). Evaluation is the highest in the cognitive hierarchy as it includes the other elements plus a conscious value judgment based on defined criteria.

Critical Thinking Skills

While you will have to demonstrate some knowledge and comprehension, you must demonstrate the ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate complex ideas to produce a satisfactory reflection paper. Now review the cognitive skills of the critical thinker:

• Interpretation is to comprehend and express the meaning or significance of a wide variety of experiences, situations, data, events, judgments, conventions, beliefs, rules, procedures, or criteria. The three sub-skills of interpretation are categorization, decoding significance, and clarifying meaning.
• Analysis is to identify the intended and actual inferential relationships among statements, questions, concepts, descriptions, or other forms of representation intended to express belief, judgment, experiences, reasons, information, or opinions. The three sub-skills of analysis are examining ideas, detecting arguments, and analyzing arguments.
• Evaluation is to assess the credibility of statements or other representations which are accounts or descriptions of a person's, perception, experience, situation, judgment, belief, or opinion; and to assess the logical strength of the actual or intended inferential relationships among statements, descriptions, questions or other forms of representation.
• Inference is to identify and secure elements needed to draw reasonable conclusions; to form conjectures and hypotheses; to consider relevant information and to educe the consequences flowing from data, statements, principles, evidence, judgments, beliefs, opinions, concepts, descriptions, questions, or other forms of representation. The three sub-skills of inference are querying evidence, conjecturing alternatives, and drawing conclusions.
• Explanation is to state the results of one's reasoning; to justify that reasoning in terms of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, and contextual considerations upon which one's results were based; and to present one's reasoning in the form of cogent arguments. The sub-skills under explanation are stating results, justifying procedures, and presenting arguments.
• Self-Regulation is to self-consciously monitor one's cognitive activities, the elements used in those activities, and the results educed, particularly by applying skills in analysis, and evaluation to one's own inferential judgments with a view toward questioning, confirming, validating, or correcting either one's reasoning or one's results. The two sub-skills here are self-examination and self-correction.

You must demonstrate the appropriate critical thinking skills based on the approach you take. On this first paper, you may want to explicitly articulate the higher order thinking skills and type of critical thinking that you are applying. Please do not ruin the flow of your paper by overdoing this explicit articulation (be subtle).

This may seem daunting and cause some of you to worry. Remember that I am on your side and I want to help you develop these skills. As you get into this very intellectually stimulating exercise, I hope that you will actually find that critical thinking and concise written reflection are enjoyable.

Summary

In this lesson, we:

• read:
  • Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations?”
  • Walt’s “Building up the New Bogeyman”
  • Said’s “The Clash of Ignorance”
• researched two academic journal articles supporting Huntington’s thesis
• discussed the intelligence writing guidelines (or the uniqueness of writing in the intelligence field)
• reviewed the necessity and use of higher-order and critical thinking skills in intelligence writing.  

The most important thing to get out of Lesson 3 is the ability to write a clear and concise academic/professional paper to explain your analysis and evaluation to others.

Final Tasks

Before you move on to Lesson 4, double-check the Lesson 3 Checklist to make sure you have completed all the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Ahead

Next week, we begin part two of the course, addressing national security applications of geospatial intelligence. Lesson Four: Intelligence Organizations and Functions introduces you to a broad overview of intelligence, including definitions of intelligence, purposes of intelligence, and US intelligence community organization and functions. There will be a lot of reading once again, and the quiz experience. The next lesson will cover:

• the definition of "intelligence" as articulated by Lowenthal;
• the evolution of the US intelligence system;
• the layout of the US intelligence infrastructure and functions of the major agencies;
• the intelligence process including requirements, collection, processing and exploitation, analysis and consumption, and feedback;
• the functions of collection and analysis as described by Lowenthal.

I am looking forward to reading your papers.

This lesson will take a broad look at the history, organizations, and functions of the US intelligence community. Let me give you fair warning that this week is primarily a reading week. We are going to leverage the knowledge and experience of Mark Lowenthal, who wrote your textbook Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, now in its ninth edition. Dr. Lowenthal has thirty years of intelligence experience in both the executive and legislative branches of government, as well as in the private sector. He retired in 2005 from the government, having served three years as both the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production and Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council for Evaluation. He now runs a national security education, training, and consulting firm called the Intelligence and Security Academy, and he is an adjunct professor at Columbia University.

My teaching approach this week is to have you read six chapters from the textbook. Fortunately, this book is very well written, the chapters are concise (short and to the point), and I found it very interesting and enjoyable reading. I want you to read the book in conjunction with the online lesson. I will provide questions to contemplate and guide you as you read each chapter. After you have read the chapter, you will complete the Lesson 4 - GRADED Quiz (#3), which you can take one time for your lesson grade.

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• discuss the concept of "intelligence" as articulated by Lowenthal (chapter 1);
• trace the evolution of the US intelligence system (chapter 2);
• examine the layout of the US intelligence infrastructure
• differentiate the functions of the major agencies (chapter 3);
• identify key components of the intelligence process, including: requirements, collection, processing and exploitation, analysis and production, dissemination and consumption, and feedback (chapter 4);
• identify the functions of collection and analysis as described by Lowenthal (chapters 5-6).

Lesson 4 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.

Language has power. Those who get to determine definitions often get to determine the scope of "legitimate" discussion for a particular topic. Thus, certain discourses are legitimate and privileged, certain discourses are marginalized as less important, and some discourses may be tainted as illegitimate and not worthy or allowable for discussion. The legitimacy and privilege of a discourse is critical when it comes to resource allocation. Those with privileged discourse win, while those with marginalized or illegitimate discourses lose, to a lesser or greater degree.

From the Armed Forces to the NSA to the Treasury Department, PostTV breaks down the 16 different agencies and organizations that collect intelligence for the U.S. government—and the 17th office that oversees them all. Watch the video below. (Davin Coburn / The Washington Post)

Video: America's intelligence community, explained (2:11)

Analyst Training and Education

Reference the second bullet above on analyst's training; the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) puts great emphasis on training their analysts. As an example, NGA manages the GEOINT Professional Certification Program (GPC), part of a broader initiative to professionalize the Department of Defense Intelligence Enterprise workforce. Certifications are based upon a set of competencies associated with the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully execute the mission. Earning a GPC credential demonstrates proficiency in the content areas in the essential body of knowledge for that certification. These certifications promote interoperability across the GEOINT community and enable practitioners to demonstrate proficiency in the competencies that are common to their specific geospatial intelligence discipline. For additional information about this program, visit GEOINT Professional Certification.

GPC credentials are categorized as either proficiency at the fundamental level or within a specific GEOINT discipline or tradecraft. According to the GPC essential body of knowledge, core competencies at the fundamental level are:

• Demonstrate understanding of processes and techniques used in GEOINT problem-solving
• Understand source evaluation principles, tasking procedures, and collection requirements
• Understand GEOINT collection and production requirements
• Understand basic principles and techniques used to evaluate the utility and quality of geospatial data
• Understand the principles of Geographic Information Systems to display and analyze geospatial data
• Understand standards, policies, practices, and authorities governing GEOINT
• Understand the distribution of intelligence and data to mission partners, organizations, and individuals to support the GEOINT mission
• Understand how intelligence issues impact national and defense GEOINT mission priorities
• Understand the National System for Geospatial Intelligence and Allied System for Geospatial Intelligence
• Understand quality assurance in processing and exploiting GEOINT
• Understand strategies, techniques, and technologies used to identify, acquire, and filter sources of information
• Understand the policies and procedures involved with classification, control, and disclosure/release of information, intelligence, and data.

The U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft.  USGIF supports academic programs and accredits colleges and universities that offer geospatial intelligence certificate and degree programs.  A list of accredited schools and the programs they offer can be found here: USGIF Academic Programs. Penn State's program was one of the first to be offered and accredited. An article about the beginning of this program is below.

Why are multiple programs offered in geospatial intelligence? Are these programs redundant, or do they fulfill different educational functions? Going back to your critical approach, do the different cultural filters and agendas of NGA versus academic programs influence the programs?

Summary

We had a lot of reading this week. Understanding the basics about the US intelligence community is an important foundation so you can ultimately understand where geospatial intelligence fits into the intelligence community and contributes to national security. Our six chapters covered:

• the definition of intelligence as articulated by Lowenthal;
• the evolution of the US intelligence system;
• the layout of the US intelligence community and the functions of the major agencies;
• the intelligence process of: requirements, collection, processing and exploitation, analysis and production, dissemination and consumption, and feedback;
• the bedrock of intelligence-collection;
• the mainstay of the process-analysis.

Remember that what you read was written by a national security insider who is a veteran of the CIA. His personal history and experience give him a particular cultural filter. Your challenge as a critical thinker is to recognize from where he comes, consider alternative approaches, and keep an open mind. Nevertheless, the US national security intelligence community is the most sophisticated, best funded, and far reaching intelligence establishment on the planet. Thus, it does rate our careful study and understanding even as we focus in on geospatial intelligence in both national security and other applications.

Final Tasks

Your last challenge this week is to take Lesson 4 - GRADED Quiz (#3) on this week's readings.

Before you move on to Lesson 5, double-check the Lesson 4 Checklist to make sure you have completed all the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Ahead

I hope you like Lowenthal's book because our next lesson is another reading week. Now that we understand the basics of how the US intelligence community works, in our next lesson, we are going to consider:

• the role of the policymaker;
• the legacy of the Cold War;
• the new intelligence agenda;
• ethical and moral issues in intelligence;
• intelligence reform.

But first, you have to get through the Lesson 4 - GRADED Quiz (#3) successfully. Good Luck!

This lesson continues our broad look at the US intelligence community, focusing in on the role of policymakers, the evolution of priorities, and thus the organization of the intelligence community, and, quite importantly, ethical issues in intelligence. We will also zero in on the role and place of GEOINT in the community. This is another heavy reading week, with more of those quizzes you are learning to love. Once again, we are going to leverage the knowledge and experience of Mark Lowenthal and his textbook Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy. We are also going to examine NGA's foundational doctrinal manual: NGA Publication 1.0 Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Basic Doctrine, published in April 2018 (link listed under Required Readings). Government doctrinal publications are authoritative in that they provide official definitions, delineate roles and responsibilities, and articulate techniques, procedures, and processes. Much of the underlying authority for doctrine comes from US federal law, as codified in the US Code. Recognize, however, that in the US, "doctrine is not dogma." In other words, doctrine is a guide that coordinates the efforts of agencies and provides guidance on how to conduct business, but operational variation from doctrine is allowed as long as one does not violate the law and is successful.

My teaching approach this week is the same as last week in that you have to read four chapters from the textbook and scan NGA Pub 1.0. I want you to read the book in conjunction with the online lesson. I will provide a brief pre-read commentary for each chapter that asks you to contemplate several questions as you read and provides some other perspectives for comparison. At the end of this module you can take Lesson 5 - GRADED Quiz (#4) one time for your lesson grade. 

I suggest that if you have the time, you read the rest of Lowenthal's book. The chapters I did not assign on Counterintelligence, Covert Action, Oversight and Accountability, and Foreign Intelligence Services make for fascinating reading.

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• identify the relationship of policymakers and intelligence professionals (Chapter 9);
• recognize the impact and legacy of the Cold War on the US intelligence community (focusing on the role of imagery analysis) (Chapter 12);
• indicate examples of the new intelligence agenda in the Post Cold War/September 11 Era, and discuss the impact of new challenges on the geospatial intelligence community (Chapter 12);
• examine Lowenthal's insider views on "Ethical and Moral Issues in Intelligence" (Chapter 13);
• recognize efforts at intelligence reform, focusing on possible impacts on the geospatial intelligence community (Chapter 14);
• recognize the evolving role of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) in the context of the overall role of geospatial intelligence in support of US national security (NGA Pub 1.0).

Lesson 5 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.

It is important that you understand the doctrinal underpinnings of the premier GEOINT organization in the US and perhaps the world.

Required Reading

1. Read the NGA (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) fact sheet.
2. Read NGA Publication 1.0 National System for Geospatial Intelligence: Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Basic Doctrine (STUDY the Introduction on pages 5-6). The reading can be accessed from the Lesson 5 Checklist. As you read NGA Pub 1.0, do some critical thinking and ask yourself:
   • Why does NGA define GEOINT as it does and what is NGA's agenda in establishing this definition and its role?
   • How does the NGA view differ from Lowenthal's (a CIA type) coverage?
   • How might a Geographic Information Science practitioner conducting GEOINT for other than national security purposes (disaster preparedness/response, public health, business intelligence, etc) see the definition and application of GEOINT differently?
3. To improve your understanding of the NGA and the strategy it is charged with implementing, scan the NGA 2015 Strategy. The reading can be accessed from the Lesson 5 Checklist.

To get a flavor for the topic, please take a few minutes (4:46 running time) to view Episode Three, Chapter One of the Geospatial Revolution Series.

Video: Geospatial Revolution / Episode Three, Chapter One: Mapping the Road to Peace (4:46)

Then read the NGA fact sheet above and complete the required readings. If you are really enthusiastic, look over Joint Publication 2-03 Geospatial Intelligence Support to Joint Operations (a link to the Optional Reading is provided below).

Lowenthal notes that most authors and intelligence experts do not consider the policy maker to be part of the intelligence process. Lowenthal disagrees, and that is why he adds two stages to the process. Remember that, according to Lowenthal, "Intelligence refers to information that meets the stated or understood needs of policy makers and has been collected, processed, and narrowed to meet those needs." The needs of policy makers drive intelligence priorities, which will drive the intelligence process, and, very importantly, drive resource allocation. Note also the problems that can arise when the "understood" needs of policy makers are unclear or contentious. To put this another way, the needs of the client policy maker drive the mission and activities of the geospatial intelligence professional. A clear understanding of the client's requirements (which may change over time) is essential to the successful intelligence enterprise.

Now consider how this discussion applies to GEOINT. According to NGA Pub 1.0:

GEOINT can also create a Common Operational Picture (COP) of a specific area by effectively using multiple and advanced sensors, multiple types of data and information (including operations, planning, logistics, etc), as well as multiple intelligence disciplines (INTs) to present a comprehensive visual depiction. This capability provides many advantages for the warfighter, national security policymakers, homeland security personnel, and IC collaborators by precisely locating activities and objects, assessing and discerning the meaning of events, and providing context for decision makers.

In short, GEOINT provides innovative, versatile solutions for meeting today's demanding intelligence requirements and predicting tomorrow's future threat environment. (NGA Pub 1.0 pages 5-6, emphasis added)

This passage points out that NGA provides GEOINT products and support to a wide customer base beyond federal government policy makers as envisioned by Lowenthal. NGA customers also include warfighters (military commanders and their forces engaged in planning and operations), the homeland security community (focused on both terrorism and disaster planning and response—i.e., all hazards preparedness and response), and other domestic and international partners (allies).

Note how Lowenthal’s priorities changed in Chapter 12 between the eighth and ninth additions. He promoted Heath Issues presumably due to the COVID 19 pandemic and concerns over future pandemics. He also made Climate Change its own category. While there are still "climate deniers” out there, the position of the US Government in the Fourth National Climate Assessment is:

This assessment concludes, based on extensive evidence, that it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence.

The assessment goes on to indicate there will be serious issues for US national security due to global climate change. I’ll let you speculate on why he dropped Peacekeeping Operations from the list.

Video: Revolution in Intelligence Affairs Future Strategic Environment (11:23)

We know from earlier readings that one of the mortal sins in the intelligence business is to politicize intelligence. Consider the perspective of a former CIA analyst in assessing the track record of a former Secretary of Defense (who you will recall controls about 80% of the intelligence assets on a daily basis, and is a major consumer of intelligence products).

Optional Reading

On the Politicization of Intelligence

Tomes, Robert. "On the politicization of intelligence"; War on the Rocks, September 29, 2015

Atlantica Scenario Background

Intelligence Estimate, Republic of Atlantica

Map of Northern Atlantica Capital Region. Each grid is 1km by 1km. (Click on the map to open a window with an enlarged image of the map).

Credit: Paul Forage.

Background

1. Atlantica is a small pro-Western Eurasian republic. Since gaining their independence from Great Britain in 1985, its people had been living in relative harmony and have enjoyed a fair degree of economic prosperity. Their prosperity was based on a thriving tourist industry, burgeoning trade, and a close relationship with the United States Government and the U.S. Air Force (USAF). The USAF has an important forward operating base and airfield located in the northern part of the country that shares a runway with the international airport. The political and economic core of Atlantica is the capital city of Bridgetown (AKA Bridgeport). The Southern Administrative Region is administered from the main southern city of Southport.
2. This prosperity, however, concealed the underlying political and cultural divisions in the Republic between the ruling majority population in the northern lowlands and its southern highland minorities with their own historical and intensely tribal traditions. Though racially identical, Atlanticans are distinguished by culture, religion, and ethnicity, and separated by artificial political, economic, and educational barriers. This separation is in part due to differences in geography: the northern half has wide plains and fertile fields while the south is mountainous.
3. North Atlanticans have long enjoyed political and economic advantages in the Republic. Atlantican government leaders and politicians, despite their pro-democracy claims, cling to an electoral system that only allows traditional land owners the right to vote, with the result that the majority of seats in the Atlantican Parliament are held by Northern representatives. The Constitution of the Republic excludes minority rights by imposing restrictions on land ownership that result in the disenfranchisement of Southerners. A few Southerners have been able to gain a degree of social status by entering into business arrangements with ethnic Northerners or by marrying into Northern families, though the latter is frowned upon socially and actively discouraged by the Government of the Republic of Atlantica.
4. The long term trend, however, is a slow decline in Northern privilege and increasing Southern representation in the Atlantican Parliament, with a concurrent rise in ethnic and political tensions. The last election in 2009 led to the formation of a minority government. The coalition is led by the long-time ruling Atlantica Renewal Party (ARP) (35% of the popular vote) together with the Conservative Party of Atlantica (CPA) (30%), leaving the ethnic southern New World Party (NWP) in opposition with 35% of the vote. Southern professionals have found themselves out of work or passed over for promotion in favor of their ethnic Northern colleagues. The Republic's security forces, comprised of a small British-trained and US-equipped Army (Army of the Republic of Atlantica) and a National Police Force, are dominated by a Northern officer corps.
5. As long as its economy generated some wealth for all its citizens, the Republic was at relative peace and its government stable. While poor and disenfranchised by the North, South Atlanticans had been enjoying increasing prosperity as a result of recent discoveries of valuable mineral deposits in the highlands.
6. With increasing prosperity and education, Southerners in Atlantica began agitating for more political freedoms, demanding democratic reforms and redress of the basic inequities in Atlantican society. Key demands included:
   • Equity in government and law enforcement hiring,
   • Greater local administrative autonomy for predominantly Southern areas, and
   • Repeal of constitutional restrictions on Southern land ownership.
7. At first the Atlantican Government ignored these demands. This resulted in a popular campaign of non-violent agitation within the Southern community including rallies and protests that garnered international support and wide publicity for the Southern cause. General strikes in Southern mines in September 2011 organized by the New World Party brought the regional economy to a standstill. The Government reacted by mounting a public information campaign and appointed several government committees "to study the legitimate grievances of the Southern minorities." NWP and Southern tribal leaders denounced these actions as little more than window-dressing.
8. Strikes in the mining industry and increasing communal violence prompted a robust response by the Minister for National Security William H. Barfield II. Barfield is a prominent hard-line figure in the CPA, a favorite at Atlantican political rallies, and is extremely popular among the Army and National Police rank and file. Under attack by his critics in Parliament, Atlantican President Anderson appointed Barfield Minister in 2010 to appease Atlantican conservatives and reorganized all security, police, and military forces in the Republic under the Ministry for National Security (MNS).
9. The MNS under the 2010 Security Reform Act changed the position of the national security advisor to the President to an executive ministerial position with full authority over the Atlantican security apparatus "in consultation" with the office of the President. The 2010 Security Reform Act prompted many observers in the United States to decry the emergence of a new "national security state" in the Republic. Atlantican spokesmen responded that these changes merely "streamlined" the Atlantican security apparatus. They claimed that the United States Government and its air base "benefit directly from this enhanced and rationalized security infrastructure."
10. Since 2010, there has been little political or economic improvement since the Atlantican government adopted its hardline policies. Many important Northern-owned mines remained closed in the South. Some local populations are reduced to subsistence livelihoods. There are occasional reports of famine in some tribal areas in south central Atlantica.
11. Some Southern tribesmen have taken up arms and have launched sporadic attacks against Atlantican security forces. They are actively hostile to any outsiders who enter their tribal areas. Government spokespersons refer to these armed groups as "bandits and criminals" who will be "dealt with severely." In retaliation, tribesmen have attacked some Army patrols with landmines and IEDs.
12. Despite the hostility of some traditional tribal leadership, a few humanitarian aid organizations have been successful in entering Southern communities to deliver food aid and medical care. The Government of the Republic of Atlantica and the Army support these efforts reluctantly and only because of pressure from the international community. Some northern Atlanticans believe incorrectly that these aid agencies are sustaining and widening the conflict.
13. In April 2013, a 6.8 degree magnitude (Richter scale) earthquake struck south central Atlantica with devastating results. Initial estimates by international aid workers already in the area count at least 2,000 people killed outright and at least another 5,000 injured and 150 missing. Many villages and hamlets in the area have suffered severe damage rendering many local structures uninhabitable. More than 10,000 people are homeless. Many local schools are damaged and the few hospitals in the region are significantly damaged and operating at only 40% capacity. There is also major damage to the dam that retains a regional reservoir. Large amounts of water are pouring from this dam and there is some danger of flooding. Persistent aftershocks continue to afflict the area, causing wide-spread concern.
14. Because its own emergency management capabilities have been overwhelmed by the magnitude of the disaster, the Government of Atlantica has requested humanitarian assistance from the United States for its earthquake-stricken area. As the United States Government (USG) considers Atlantica an important strategic ally, the U.S. government is organizing a quick response to the humanitarian crisis in part to prevent the situation in the country from becoming more unstable. Atlantican and American planners have divided the afflicted region in South Atlantica into several Areas of Responsibility (AORs). The Atlantican Government has asked the United States to be responsible for organizing and delivering relief efforts to the Atlantican central highlands
15. The Atlantican Government has expressed its gratitude for this humanitarian assistance as the scale of the disaster has overwhelmed its own emergency response capabilities. However, the government is either ambivalent or hostile to external efforts to mediate the internal political crisis and will only accept a limited number of military personnel to operate on its territory. The government welcomes civilian aid workers and emergency personnel and will provide security.

Government Forces

1. United States: Given the simmering conflict in the disaster area, the United States has requested and been given permission to position a small but capable Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF) Quick Reaction Force (QRF) inside Atlantican territory at the USAF facility to provide additional security for U.S. and other humanitarian personnel should the need arise. The U.S. airfield will also serve as a staging area for disaster relief efforts.
2. Atlantican Forces: Elements of the 2nd Bn (SOC) of the 1st Army of the Republic of Atlantica (ARA) are conducting security operations in the AOR. Uniform: Standard US pattern BDUs; SOC ARA does not wear unit insignia. ARA Emblem: Winged "Sword of the Republic" on OD Background. Equipment: US made small arms; M4A1 is the weapon of choice. Significant presence of armed and unarmed Ministry of National Security operators in civilian dress, distinguished only by MNS documentation/identity cards and two-way radios. MNS operators sometimes observed with MP5s. MNS emblem: "Sword of the Republic" on a red background.
3. The United Kingdom has a small operations and security contingent at the US Airbase.

Opposition Forces

1. Small numbers of armed tribesmen and sympathizers are resident in the AOR. Uniform: Tribesmen wear civilian dress. Weapons: small arms, mostly former Eastern-block or captured ARA equipment, some capability for manufacturing bombs, landmines, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), no known WMD capabilities.
2. Criminal gangs are known to operate in the Southern Highlands. They primarily engage in smuggling alcohol, tobacco, and gasoline. Certain organized crime elements associated with regional organized crime organizations engage in smuggling drugs and weapons, as well as participating in human trafficking.

Neutral Elements

1. IOs/NGOs: Some International Red Cross and additional NGO personnel are conducting HA operations in the affected area.
2. Intermediaries: The Anglican Church of Atlantica is willing to serve as an intermediary between agencies and armed groups in the AOR.

Possible Courses of Action (COA)

Government of Atlantica COA

1. The Government of Atlantica will continue its effort to eliminate all armed groups and rebuild their country. It is expected to be cooperative with U.S. forces. However, U.S. forces can expect ARA and security forces to resist/deny any direct supervision or observation of their activities. American news services, academics, activists, and several congressional representatives have been critical of the repressive actions taken by Atlantican government and its security forces.
2. A U.S. effort to moderate the Atlantican position and encourage long-term negotiations with the Southern community is the one source of friction between the two governments despite the natural disaster. The Atlantican position is further aggravated by the human rights criticisms of the international press, the UN and international NGOs. The Atlantican Government is grateful, however, for their humanitarian relief efforts as long as they remain "neutral" and do not support the Southern causes.
3. Two NGOs are now present in the Republic - they are International Humanitarian Action and "Rights Without Borders." (RWB). IHA is concerned with relieving the humanitarian crisis and providing aid to all citizens of Atlantica. This equitable approach has generated some conflict with Atlantican security forces on the grounds that IHA should not be, as some Atlanticans describe it, "providing food and medicine to the bandits." There is no evidence that any IHA aid has been misused.
4. RWB is a vocal American and European human rights advocacy group highly critical of the Atlantican government and its security forces. It is also critical of the U.S. Government and U.S. Army for supporting Atlantican security forces. RWB activists have held regular press conferences denouncing ARA actions and have issued a number of high profile calls for a "neutral and impartial" international intervention.
5. So far, the Atlantican government has tolerated the presence of this group in its effort to demonstrate its good will to the United States and the international community, but members of the hard-line CPA have called for the arrest and deportation of RWB personnel in the wake of the Director's statement. Southern civil rights advocates have received death threats from unknown Atlantican groups demanding their withdrawal. As a result, RWB is expected to extend their "protective accompaniment" and "emergency notification network" to Southern civil rights activists. This move will place U.S. civilian nationals in danger as they accompany threatened Southerners 24 hours/day and speak on their behalf to the U.S. and international media. It will also subject U.S. forces to additional public, media, and congressional scrutiny if RWB activates its network. RWB workers, regardless of nationality, may be subject to arrest by Atlantican security forces or attack by Atlantican extremists.

Summary

Yet again, we had a lot of reading this week. Completion of this lesson gives you a basic understanding of issues affecting the US intelligence community. Our four chapters and additional readings covered:

• the role of the policy maker;
• the new intelligence agenda;
• ethical and moral issues in intelligence;
• intelligence reform;
• the NGA and NGS.

Remember once again that what you read in the Lowenthal book was written by a national security insider who is a veteran of the CIA. His personal history and experience give him a particular cultural filter. This lesson included a doctrinal publication, NGA fact sheets, and several articles from media outlets. Your challenge is to be a critical thinker and to use your higher order thinking skills of interpretation, analysis and synthesis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation in utilizing the readings.

Final Tasks

Your last challenge this week is to take Lesson 5 - GRADED Quiz (#4) on this week's readings.

Before you move on to Lesson 6, double-check the Lesson 5 Checklist to make sure you have completed all the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Far Ahead........

In Lesson 7, you will be required to complete four Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) online training courses. Please note that FEMA's Independent Study Exams require a FEMA Student Identification (SID) Number. If you do not yet have a SID, register for one today at FEMA Student Identification System. For directions on how to request an alternative ID number, please see FEMA's Frequently Asked Questions on that same page.

Back to Lesson 5

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, you have to get through Lesson 5 - GRADED Quiz (#4) successfully. Good Luck!

This lesson serves two purposes. First, it completes the discussion of national security aspects of geospatial intelligence by focusing on the evolution of military applications of geographic technology. Second, it allows us to critically examine so called "revolutions in military affairs" or RMAs and consider how they do or do not impact GEOINT.

Geographic techniques have supported warfare since shortly after Cain slew Abel and mapped out his next moves. Cartographers provided increasingly sophisticated maps to support military activities, while military demand spurred the development of the discipline. This symbiotic relationship between geographic techniques and military activities was very evident in the development of the sub-disciplines and technologies of remote sensing and global positioning systems. It is somewhat less evident in the development of Geographic Information Systems (or is it?)

To get ready for this topic, watch the following video from the Geospatial Revolution Series.

Video: Geospatial Revolution / Episode Three, Chapter Two: Waging Modern War (4:18)

The American Association of Geographers commissioned two books to celebrate the centennial of the organization in 2004. These books were given as gifts to each of the 5,000 participants in that year's annual meeting in Philadelphia, PA. You will be asked to read a chapter of one of these books, Geotechology, the U.S. Military, and War. This chapter is based entirely on open-source documents. The sections on current national technical systems were based on open-source information from the Federation of American Scientists. Some of the GEOINT practitioners may roll their eyes at inaccuracies. If there are any--do not tell us. For our purposes, this is the best information we have and all we need to know.

The chapter is a history of the evolution of geographic technologies and their contributions to military activities. The chapter also contends that geographic technologies fundamentally underpin the so-called "Revolution in Military Affairs" (RMA). This is a very debatable point, and we will have some fun doing just that. The RMA concept is somewhat out of favor in military academic circles, but a different major discussion addressed the related concept of "Network Centric Warfare (NCW)." I will ask you to consider whether the NCW is still worth discussing, and how it relates to geospatial intelligence. We will also look at an alternative view provided by P.W. Singer in Wired for War that posits the RMA is really all about robots. We will then look at the current discussion about the role of artificial intelligence coupled with ground, air, and sea "killer robots" and the role GEOINT might play.

Our final topic on future applications of GEOINT is actually up to the students. This topic will provide an opportunity for you to educate me and your classmates on future applications based on your research and experience. We are at a transitional point in history with the end of OIF and OEF, and apparently a return to competition and potential conflict with near-peer competitors such as Russia and China (or proxies such as Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan). Consider how all of this will affect Geospatial Intelligence, and how this course should reflect those potential changes. We look forward to your feedback on this to help us with future revisions to keep this course current.

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• analyze the evolution of military applications of GIS&T from 19^th Century to the present (including cartography, remote sensing, GIS, GPS, and simulations/modeling);
• critique the idea that GIS&T underpins the so-called "Revolution in Military Affairs" as articulated by Schneider;
• analyze network centric warfare, military robotics, and the application of military AI (to include the Replicator Initiative) and evaluate and explain the role of GEOINT in the future;
• speculate on future applications of geospatial intelligence for national security.

Lesson 6 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.

Before we get too deeply into the topic at hand, consider viewing the following videos about the history of remote sensing. The videos were produced by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) in celebration of their 75th anniversary and in preparation for a full length documentary on Remote Sensing. The videos are also available on YouTube at: The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

Video: Evolution of Analog to Digital Mapping (2:10)

Video: Aerial Survey Pioneers (2:56)

Video: Geospatial Intelligence in WWII (1:58)

Video: The Role of Women in the History of Photogrammetry (1:38)

Video: Photogrammetry in Space Exploration (2:00)

Lowenthal's text he taught us about the evolution of the US intelligence community and made mention of the role of IMINT. Military applications of geographic techniques can be traced much farther back into history.

The literature suggests that so-called Revolutions in Military Affairs (RMA) have occurred in the past with the advent of technologies such as gunpowder, railroads, the aircraft carrier, and nuclear weapons. This literature goes on to suggest that a new RMA is emerging, predicated on the idea that a rapid pace of technological innovation is altering the nature of modern warfare and the basic foundations of security. Barry Schneider of the Air War College identifies four new warfare applications that represent this RMA: long range precision strike, information warfare, dominating maneuver, and space warfare. All of these warfare applications are enabled by or associated with "information dominance," also known as "dominant battlespace awareness." The authors of the reading contend that both of those concepts are fundamentally based on geography and geographic technologies.

P.W. Singer, in his New York Times bestselling book Wired for War, contends that the real RMA is the revolution in robotics and the potential implications not only for warfare, but for society and the human species itself. I highly recommend the whole book as it is brilliantly written and really funny (Jon Stewart of The Daily Show noted it "Blew my f***ing mind...This book is awesome"). As you cannot read the whole book here, you will read chapter 10 entitled "The Big Cebrowski and the Real RMA: Thinking About Revolutionary Changes in Technologies."

We may or may not be in the midst of a RMA, but Network Centric Warfare (NCW) is a key capability (and vulnerability) for modern armed forces. Below are a few short readings and videos. The first addresses the nature of Network Centric Warfare; the second is a promotional video for Rafael’s “Fire Weaver” battlefield networking system. As critical thinkers, we need to consider multiple sides of issues. The article by Major General (RET) Robert H. Scales from 2005 challenges all the claims about network centric warfare in an urban insurgent environment such as Iraq. The article from the Center for Strategic and International Studies focuses on vulnerabilities of network centric forces and how resilience strategies can mitigate such vulnerabilities. The optional video from the Disruption Network Lab looks at the ethical issues of NCW and poses ethical questions and if the whole concept is really benefitting humanity.

As you read the following articles and watch the videos, do some critical thinking and:

• evaluate the arguments for and against the importance of NCW;
• analyze how the arguments stack up against your experience with NCW;
• analyze how all this talk of NCW impacts the field of geospatial intelligence, and specifically the role, mission, political position, and funding of the NGA.

Left: US Army Soldier using Blue Force Tracker.
Right: Major Allan Foskett, Chief of Highway Traffic, and SGT Juan Franco of the 450th Movement Control Battalion are shown preparing to enter Iraq

Credit: Department of the Army via Wikipedia (left) and © M. Corson. Used with permission (right).

Blue Force Tracker allows Soldiers to maintain situational awareness on the battlefield by knowing their own location, the location of friendly forces (the blue forces), plotting enemy locations, and communicating this all over a network to maintain a common operating picture or COP. The system uses digital maps, remotely sensed imagery, and global positioning system data that are all geospatial intelligence products or techniques.

In the image on the right, MAJ Foskett has his Movement Tracking System (MTS) up. MTS is a satellite based system with a digital map that can be zoomed in and out. A global positioning system transmits the unit location to other users, and the system overlays all or selected users on the digital map. The system also allows for text messaging via satellite, thus overcoming the limitations of terrestrial radio systems. MTS allowed the 450th Movement Control Battalion to maintain in-transit visibility of critical logistics convoys, and to communicate over long distances. Highway Regulating Teams patrolling the main supply route often were able to call in medical evacuation helicopters for units out of radio contact, thus saving many lives. SGT Franco is a digital graphic designer. He took locational data obtained by GPS equipped Highway Regulation Teams and produced a simplified strip map of all the theater logistics nodes in Kuwait and Iraq. His map was widely reproduced and distributed. The map enabled both military and contracted logisticians to support the force.

Read

What is Network-Centric Warfare?

McConoly, R. (2021, June 21). What is Network-Centric Warfare?. Naval Post. https://navalpost.medium.com/what-is-network-centric-warfare-953d91f2a029

Now watch with a critical eye this advertisement from defense contractor Rafael for their Fire Weaver system.

Video: FIRE WEAVER™ - A networked combat system (urban scenario) (4:33)

Now read this commentary by retired Major General Robert Scales. His perspective derives from operations in Iraq in 2003-2004. Are his observations in this 2005 article still applicable today?

Now consider this article from the Center for Strategic and International Studies and contemplate the potential vulnerabilities of a network reliant force.

Read

Battle Networks and the Future Force, Part 2: Operational Challenges and Acquisition Opportunities

Harrison, T. ( 2021, November). Battle Networks and the Future Force, Part 2: Operational Challenges and Acquisition Opportunities. CSIS Briefs. https://www.csis.org/analysis/battle-networks-and-future-force-0

Government and military practitioners tend to take a very technical/operational approach to NCW. Seldom do they ask “just because we can do it, should we do it?” This optional video takes a critical look at NCW and includes presentations by expert whistleblowers.

The Keynote address in the following optional video was given by Lisa Ling (Whistleblower, Former Technical Sergeant, US Air Force Drone Surveillance Programme, US) and Cian Westmoreland (Whistleblower, Former US Air Force Drone Technician, US). It was moderated by Daniel Eriksson (CEO of Transparency International, SE/DE). Distribution Network Lab describes the video like this in the video description.

"This keynote presentation introduces what Lisa Ling and Cian Westmoreland have come to call the “Kill Cloud,” a rapidly growing networked infrastructure of global reach with the primary intent of dominating every spectrum of warfare. There is a need for a critical analysis of how the “Kill Cloud” operates, from its ideological underpinnings, its ambitions, to the technological approach being pursued to achieve global military dominance over all battlespace dimensions including, space, cyberspace, and the electromagnetic spectrum itself. Modern network centric warfare has been hidden behind the captivating image of the drone, yet these systems are vastly more complex, insidious, ubiquitous, and inaccurate than the public is aware, and its colonial underpinnings continue to bring endless war to societies across the globe. The Kill Cloud has emerged as an immense and evolving system of systems hastening the expansion of the Global War on Terror. This talk pays close attention to the US military drone programme’s contribution to the framing and evolution of modern network centric war. This Kill Cloud has far-reaching consequences beyond those of what have been traditionally considered in warfare. Read the full chapter in the book Whistleblowing for Change."

Optional Video

KEYNOTE: The Kill Cloud: Real World Implications of Network Centric Warfare (1 hour, 39 minutes)

So far in this lesson we have examined the relationship between geography and military technology from the 19th Century, and the idea of revolutions in military affairs or RMA’s from the ideas of Schnieder through Cerbowski to Singer. Whether or not it is a RMA, the application of artificial intelligence is the current focus (as of late 2023) of military thinkers.

The PBS News Hour video explores how AI is changing the battlefield in Ukraine (as of 2023) while also addressing ethical and legal issues associated with autonomous lethal AI weapons. The second video addresses (as of 2023) the Pentagon’s “Replicator” plan to field thousands of networked, AI enabled systems to deter the People’s Republic of China from aggression in the South China Sea and against Tawain. The associated transcript Is Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announcing the Replicator initiative. The last reading from the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation ties all of this talk about AI to how the geospatial community can contribute to Replicator, NCW, and the future of America’s military capability.

Video: How militaries are using artificial intelligence on and off the battlefield (6:14)

In August 2023 Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced the Replicator Initiative to create thousands of low cost land, sea, and air drones to counter China’s advantage in mass in the South China Sea and Taiwan Straits.

Video: Pentagon 'replicator' initiative: US military plans to thwart China with 1,000 war drones (01:47)

Read

Here is Deputy Secretary of Defense Hick’s speech about the Replicator iniative.

Hicks' Remarks: Unpacking the Replicator Initiative at the Defense News Conference (As Delivered). (2023, Sept. 6) U.S. Department of Defense. https://www.defense.gov/News/Speeches/Speech/Article/3517213/deputy-secretary-of-defense-kathleen-hicks-remarks-unpacking-the-replicator-ini/

This topic is up to you, the students. Please do some thinking and a little research to identify and consider future applications of geospatial intelligence in the national security arena. Future applications of geospatial intelligence will be one of our major discussion questions in this week's Graded Discussion Forum (#2). You might also give some thought to the current issues in the news surrounding cybersecurity and the leaking of government sensitive and public sensitive data from organizations such as the National Security Agency (NSA). As this debate continues, what are some of the legal and societal ramifications of needing to collect geospatial intelligence data while protecting citizens' basic freedoms in a democracy?

Summary

This lesson ends our study of national security applications of GEOINT. The lesson and our reading assignments covered:

• Evolution of Military GIS&T
• GIS&T and the "RMA"
• Network Centric Warfare
• Artificial Intelligence and future GEOINT Applications

Geographic techniques have played an important role in military history, and military requirements have spurred rapid advances in geographic techniques. Geospatial intelligence is an evolving INT that leverages these techniques in support of policy makers and Warfighters. It will be interesting to see how the evolving concepts of the RMA and NCW, as well as new technologies and applications such as unmanned vehicles integrated with artificial intelligence, will interact with geospatial intelligence. Some of you in this class will be future leaders and decision-makers involved in this process.

Final Tasks

Before you move on to Lesson 7, double-check the Lesson 6 Checklist to make sure you have completed all of the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Ahead

Next week, we start Part Three of the course on Disaster Management. This might be a new subject for many of you, and it is an important topic for all citizens. You also get a change of pace on your deliverable. After you have completed the brief lesson introduction in Canvas, you will leverage the resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to become National Incident Management System (NIMS) certified. The FEMA website provides free training and certification to government officials, first responders, and concerned citizens. Knowledge of NIMS will help you speak the same language of disaster and facilitate interagency cooperation for those of you in the field. The next lesson will address:

• the basic concepts of disaster management;
• the hierarchy of disaster responders, roles of the major agencies/organizations, and the capabilities and limitations of different types of organizations;
• the fundamentals of emergency management;
• the National Incident Management System (NIMS);
• the Geospatial Concept of Operations (GeoCONOPS).

Before moving on, you have to complete Lesson 6 - GRADED Discussion Forum (#2).

Good Luck!

This lesson begins our three-week examination of homeland security, emergency preparedness, and disaster management. This first lesson covers basic concepts of disaster management, as well as the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Geospatial Concept of Operations (GeoCONOPS). The assignments for this lesson are different from other lessons in that you will do most of your work on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Management Institute website. You will complete the online training courses for the NIMS and GeoCONOPS, resulting in your basic certification in these areas. This basic knowledge will improve your ability to understand how geospatial intelligence can support interagency disaster preparedness and response activities.

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• explain the basic concepts of emergency management;
• explain the role of the major agencies/organizations;
• discuss the capabilities and limitations of different types of organizations;
• describe the key concepts, principles, scope, and applicability underlying the National Incident Management System (NIMS);
• describe how GIS technology can support the emergency management community to include: GIS fundamentals and history; how GIS is used in emergency management and tools available to enhance GIS usefulness.

Lesson 7 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.

Integrated Emergency Management System

When an emergency or disaster occurs:

• agencies from different jurisdictions and government levels need to work together. Major emergencies and disasters ignore city, county, and state boundaries.
• rapid decision making is required.

Without planning and coordination, emergency operations can suffer from serious misdirection and mistakes.

An integrated emergency management system provides a conceptual framework for organizing and managing emergency protection efforts. This framework prescribes when and how local officials and agencies will work together to deal with a full range of emergencies, from natural disasters to terrorism.

Each level of government participates in and contributes to emergency management.

• Local government has direct responsibility for the safety of its citizens, knowledge of the situation and personnel, and proximity to both the event and resources. Emergency Support Services are the departments of local government that are capable of responding to emergencies 24 hours a day. They include law enforcement, fire/rescue, and public works. They may also be referred to as emergency response personnel or first responders.
• State government has legal authorities for emergency response and recovery and serves as the point of contact between local and Federal governments.
• Federal government has legal authorities, fiscal resources, research capabilities, technical information and services, and specialized personnel to assist local and State agencies in responding to and recovering from emergencies or disasters.

The Spectrum of Incident Management Actions

Incident management covers a spectrum of activities ranging from:

• Pre-incident activities, such as information sharing, threat identification, planning, and readiness exercises.
• Incident activities that include lifesaving missions and critical infrastructure support protections.
• Post-incident activities that help people and communities recover and rebuild for a safer future.

The National Planning Frameworks describe how the community works together to achieve the National Preparedness Goal, which is: "A secure and resilient nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk."  These address the full spectrum of emergency management activities, including these five mission areas:

• Prevention: Prevent, avoid or stop an imminent, threatened or actual act of terrorism.
• Protection: Protect our citizens, residents, visitors, and assets against the greatest threats and hazards in a manner that allows our interests, aspirations, and way of life to thrive.
• Mitigation: Reduce the loss of life and property by lessening the impact of future disasters.
• Response: Respond quickly to save lives, protect property and the environment, and meet basic human needs in the aftermath of a catastrophic incident.
• Recovery: Recover through a focus on the timely restoration, strengthening and revitalization of infrastructure, housing and a sustainable economy, as well as the health, social, cultural, historic and environmental fabric of communities affected by a catastrophic incident.

Preparedness as Program Centerpiece

Between emergencies and disasters, emergency managers can focus on preparedness measures. The National Preparedness Cycle is a continuous "cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action" in an effort to ensure effective coordination during incident response (FEMA, "Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans," 2010). 

FEMA Preparedness Cycle Diagram

Credit: Prep Cycle Full from FEMA Preparedness Toolkit (Public Domain).

Threat and hazard identification is a crucial first step in the planning process. This analysis determines:

• what can occur;
• how likely it is to occur;
• what devastation it is likely to cause;
• how likely it is to affect the community;
• how vulnerable the community is to a hazard.

The first step is to develop a list of threats and hazards that may occur in the community. Next, profiles should address each hazard's:

• duration
• seasonal pattern
• speed of onset

The availability of warnings also will play a crucial role in a hazard profile.

Hazard-specific information is combined with a profile of your community to determine the community's vulnerability—or risk of damage—from the hazard.

After information about the community is gathered, emergency managers use it to develop the community's hazard analysis. After a hazard and community profile has been compiled, it is helpful to quantify the community's risk by merging the information so that the community can focus on the hazards that present the highest risk.

Risk is the predicted impact that a threat or hazard would have on people, services, and specific facilities and structures in the community. A severity rating quantifies the expected impact of a specific event.

A guide for conducting threat and hazard identification and risk assessments (THIRA) can be found at: Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 201.

Planning and Coordination

CAP Staff work on tasking and planning at the Puerto Rico Wing incident command post in Carolina.

Credit: CAP Fiona by Maj. Kelix Fernandez, DoD, Public Domain
The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

An Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is a key component of an emergency program.

When an emergency threatens or strikes, the community must be prepared to take immediate action. An EOP describes:

• what emergency response actions will occur….
• under what circumstances….
• using what resources….
• who will be involved and by what authority.

An EOP consists of the following basic components:

• The Basic Plan
• Annexes
• Appendices
• Standard Operating Procedures

The EOP provides overall authority, roles, and functions during emergencies.

An Emergency Operation Center (EOC) is a central location where agency representatives can coordinate and make decisions when managing an emergency response. EOC personnel do not control the on-scene response but help on-scene personnel by establishing priorities, coordinating the acquisition and assignment of resources, and acting as a liaison with other communities and the State. The EOC is a place for working together.

The Multi-Agency Coordination System (MACS) integrates facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures and communications into a common system with responsibility for coordinating and supporting domestic incident management activities. The functions of the system are to support incident management policies and procedures, facilitate logistical support and resource tracking, inform resource allocation decisions, coordinate incident-related information, and coordinate interagency and intergovernmental issues regarding policies, priorities, and strategies.

The Incident Command System (ICS) defines the operating characteristics, interactive management components, and structure of incident management and emergency response organizations engaged throughout the life cycle of an incident. NIMS requires the use of ICS.

The conclusion of mutual aid agreements to augment local resources is an important part of developing and maintaining an emergency management program.

In any emergency or disaster, mutual aid partners may be able to provide:

• communications capability
• emergency personnel
• overall management strategy and program management
• equipment such as bulldozers or dump trucks
• sandbags
• facilities such as warehouses or temporary shelters

The best way to communicate the plan to response agencies that are responsible for implementing the plan is through training and exercising.

Training is critical to response personnel so that they know:

• what they are to do,
• when they are to do it,
• how they are to do it.

Col. William S. Tillman, Air Forces Northern Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer, and other emergency response officials discuss the reception and staging of FEMA commodities at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

Credit: EPLO at Maxwell AFB by Bill Rodman, DoD, Public Domain
The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

Functions of an Emergency Management Program

There are two ways to categorize emergency management activities:

• emergency management core functions that are performed during an emergency;
• emergency management program functions that continue on a day-to-day basis.

The eight emergency management core functions performed during emergencies are:

1. Direction and Control
2. Communications
3. Warning
4. Emergency Public Information
5. Evacuation (or in-place sheltering)
6. Mass Care
7. Health and Medical Services
8. Resource Management

Day-to-day emergency management program functions include:

• Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment
• Hazard Mitigation
• Resource Management
• Planning
• Direction and Control
• Communication and Warning
• Operations and Procedures
• Logistics and Facilities
• Training
• Exercises, Evaluations, and Corrective Actions
• Public Education and Information
• Finance and Administration

Emergency Management Program Partners

Emergency management partners include local, State, and Federal emergency managers.

The State's role is to supplement and facilitate local efforts before, during, and after emergencies. The State must be prepared to maintain or accelerate services and to provide new services to local governments when local capabilities fall short of disaster demands.

The local Emergency Program Manager has the day-to-day responsibility of managing emergency programs and activities. The role entails coordinating all aspects of a jurisdiction's mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities.

The State provides direct guidance and assistance to local jurisdictions through program development, and it channels Federal guidance and assistance down to the local level. In a disaster, the State office helps coordinate and integrate resources and apply them to local needs. The State's role might be best described as "pivotal."

The Federal government provides legislation, Executive Orders, and regulations that influence all disaster activities. It also maintains the largest pool of fiscal resources that can be applied to emergency management. Assistance may take the form of fiscal support, technical assistance, and information about materials, personnel resources, and research. FEMA takes a lead role in national preparedness for major crises. It also plays coordinating and supportive/assistance roles for integrated emergency management in partnership with State and local emergency management entities.

Emergency Management Online Training

Click on the following link to access the FEMA's IS-230: Fundamentals of Emergency Management online training. Complete the training and take the online examination. FEMA will provide a certificate, which you are to provide to the instructor as an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file.

Click on the following link to access the FEMA's IS-700: An Introduction to the National Incident Management System (NIMS) online training. Complete the training and take the online examination. FEMA will provide a certificate that you are to provide to the instructor as an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file.

Click on the following link to access FEMA’s IS-922: Applications of GIS for Emergency Management online training. Complete the training and take the online examination. FEMA will provide a certificate that you are to provide to the instructor as an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file.

Geospatial technology is used throughout the mission areas of prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery. The Homeland Security Geospatial Concept of Operations (GeoCONOPS) is a strategic roadmap to understand and improve the coordination of geospatial activities across the entire spectrum of the nation—from federal, state, and local governments, to private sector and community organizations, academia, the research and development industry, and citizens - in support of homeland security and homeland defense. The GeoCONOPS includes:

Community Tools (Resources and Capabilities)

• current resources and capabilities such as personnel, assets and analytical models

Best Practices

• requirements and activities for disaster response mission areas

Federal Operation Centers

• a detailed scenario of response activities for a catastrophic natural event

Authoritative Data

• requirements and activities for mitigation and preparedness areas

Benefits of the GeoCONOPS include:

• defines the geospatial mission blueprint of the resources and capabilities available for support in the homeland security enterprise
• identifies points of coordination and collaboration
• documents authoritative geospatial data sources
• describes best practices
• identifies technical capabilities

Summary

Completion of this lesson gives you a basic understanding of emergency preparedness and the emergency management systems in use in the US. The lesson and the online FEMA lessons covered:

• basic concepts of disaster management;
• the hierarchy of disaster responders, the role of the major agencies/organizations, and the capabilities and limitations of different types of organizations;
• the Emergency Management System;
• the National Incident Management System (NIMS);
• the Homeland Security Geospatial Concept of Operations (GeoCONOPS)

You are now officially certified to speak the language and understand the organization and operation of civilian agencies as they prepare for and respond to emergencies. For those of you in the military or the intelligence community, this knowledge facilitates your ability to work as part of the interagency process. For other students, this knowledge will improve your understanding of how your government deals with emergencies and disasters. Should you decide to get involved in emergency preparedness and response as a volunteer (e.g., in the American Red Cross, Community Emergency Response Team, or Medical Reserve Corps), this knowledge will improve your ability to work with civilian government agencies at all levels.

Final Tasks

Before you move on to Lesson 8, double-check the Lesson 7 Checklist to make sure you have completed all of the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Ahead

Next week is another heavy reading week, capped off by your second reflection paper. In our next lesson, we are going to consider:

• Cutter's concept of an "All Hazards" approach to disaster management;
• capabilities and limitations of geospatial intelligence in support of the disaster management process;
• how geospatial intelligence can be of value to the first responder and provide examples;
• social justice issues in the disaster management process;
• differences in the practice of geospatial intelligence for disaster management and other national security applications.

If you have not already taken the Midterm Course Assessment Survey, please consider completing the survey.

This lesson continues our three-week examination of homeland security, emergency preparedness, and disaster management. The last lesson introduced you to the basic concepts of emergency management and allowed you to become certified in the National Incident Management System and the Geospatial Concept of Operations. This lesson will introduce you to the background and importance of the "All Hazard" approach to the study of hazards, risk, and vulnerability. We will also look at federal disaster planning by examining the National Preparedness System, FEMA's geospatial support activities, and support provided by the Department of Defense in domestic emergency planning and response.

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• evaluate the pros and cons of a policy that would make Geographic Science and Technology the “linchpin” of the US Emergency Management System and conclude with a solid approve/disapprove recommendation that logically derives from your analysis;
• defend your own analysis using your higher order and critical thinking skills;
• write a graduate level political analysis paper.

Assignment Preview

A heads up- your deliverable this week is a policy analysis paper for the Secretary of Homeland Security. You must recommend whether the Secretary should approve/disapprove a policy to make GIScience the linchpin of the US Emergency Management System. The lesson and the readings provide information that will support your paper. A word to the wise: your ability to think critically and address the following topics will bolster your recommendation in your political analysis paper. Have a thorough understanding of:

• Cutter's concept of an "All Hazards" approach to disaster management;
• federal disaster preparedness and response efforts;
• the capabilities and limitations of geospatial intelligence in support of the disaster management process;
• how geospatial intelligence can be of value to the first responder and provide examples;
• the practice of geospatial intelligence for disaster management and other national security applications.

Questions?

Lesson 8 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.

Historically, geographers and other scholars tend to think in terms of "natural hazards" such as floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes, and "technological hazards" such as nuclear power plant accidents, chemical spills, or the consequences of a terrorist attack. Geographers have used geographic information science techniques to assist in preventing, planning for, responding to, and recovering from these natural and technological hazards since the advent of cartography.

Dr. Cutter, her faculty colleagues, and her entourage of graduate students from the University of South Carolina have done cutting edge work on the integration of geographic information science and hazards research.

Much of Dr. Cutter's work focused on issues of social justice. While many disasters are natural in origin, the risk to different communities varies based on how vulnerable they are to the effects of the hazard. In many cases, communities increase their vulnerability and risk by making questionable choices about what they build and where they build it. Consider these examples:

• houses built in flood plains or on geologic faults,
• communities built on barrier islands susceptible to the winds and storm surge of hurricanes,
• neighborhoods built near toxic industrial facilities,
• the clearing of wetlands for development,
• the construction of whole neighborhoods in a city nine feet below sea level.

In many cases, there are issues of race, class, gender, and age that increase or decrease both the vulnerability of populations to these risks and the ability of affected groups to recover from a disaster. Wealthy, predominantly white people, for example, can afford to live on barrier islands vulnerable to hurricanes because they can afford the risk of losing their home and have government subsidized flood insurance to rebuild their homes should they be damaged or destroyed. On the other hand, many poor, predominantly minority families (many with a single mother as head of household) have no choice but to live in areas of high risk to both technological and natural hazards. Thus, there is the significant issue of social justice that must be addressed when studying the geography of hazards, risks, and vulnerability. The social justice issue is also a significant factor for emergency management professionals as they plan to prevent and mitigate hazards and respond to and recover from disasters.

Susan Cutter was among the first scholars to recognize the intimate relationship between natural hazards and technological hazards. She identified early on that many disasters originating with a natural event would create a greater hazard as technological disasters occurred in response to the original natural disaster. A classic example would be a hurricane that causes massive damage through wind and storm surge, to include flooding the local wastewater treatment plant and destroying and exposing toxic wastes from industrial storage facilities. Think of the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan caused by a tsunami. These human engineered hazards thus create a spiraling cascade of hazards, exponentially increasing the risk to affected populations. The social justice issue arises again as economically poorer populations (often minorities) often live in closer proximity to the technological hazards and have fewer resources to utilize to evacuate or safely shelter in place. This phenomenon was locally evident in every hurricane to hit the southeastern United States, and only became nationally evident during Hurricane Katrina. The recognition in academic and governmental circles of the synergy between natural and technological hazards resulted in what is now referred to as "The All Hazards Approach." This approach now dominates thinking in the emergency management community about how to prepare, respond, and recover from emergencies. In academic circles, this approach is often referred to as the "Cutter School."

Dr. Cutter's 25 years of scholarship were collected in a volume entitled Hazards, Vulnerability, and Environmental Justice, published in 2006 by Stylus Publishing.

The publisher describes the book this way:

In a world of increasingly prominent hazards and disasters, from those with their genesis in natural events such as the South Asian tsunami, to human-induced atrocities and terrorist attacks, and the profound effects of climate change, this collection provides a timely assessment of these critical themes. Presenting the top selections from Susan L. Cutter's twenty-five years of scholarship on hazards, vulnerability, and environmental justice, this collection brings together powerful and difficult-to-find literature, framed by a fresh introduction that maps out the terrain and draws out the salient themes and conclusions. This essential collection is ideal for academics and students studying hazards, risk, disasters, and environmental justice across a range of disciplines.

Susan L. Cutter is a Carolina Distinguished Professor of Geography and Director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina. She was formerly President of the Association of American Geographers. Cutter was interviewed in 2014, and discussed the use of GIS in emergency management and the ‘why of the where’ when working with maps (How GIS Can Aid Emergency Management).

Dr. Cutter had the opportunity to testify to the Research Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representative's Committee on Science on "The Role of Vulnerability Science in Disaster Preparedness and Response" on 10 November 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. You now have the opportunity to read her testimony.

Read

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 prompted new thinking about disaster preparedness and response within the US federal government. With the passage of the Homeland Security Act in 2002, the Department of Homeland Security was created from all or part of 22 federal organizations as a Cabinet-level department to coordinate and unify national homeland security efforts. Thus homeland security was to encompass the preparation, protection, and response to an entire range of threats ranging from terrorism to natural disasters.

Subsequently in 2011, President Obama issued Presidential Policy Directive/PPD-8 regarding national preparedness, which is intended to strengthen the security and resilience of the U.S.

Please read the following top three sections from the Presidential Policy Directive 8 to understand its purpose and scope: this includes the National Preparedness Goal, and the National Preparedness System.

Presidential Policy Directive/PPD-8

Obama, B. (2011, March 30). Presidential Policy Directive/PPD-8. Naval Post. https://www.dhs.gov/presidential-policy-directive-8-national-preparedness

The National Response Framework

The National Response Framework is an essential component of the National Preparedness System outlined in PPD-8.  It is designed to be an all discipline, all hazards plan applicable to all members of the government and private sector involved in any way with domestic emergency preparedness and response. It provides context for how the whole community works together and how response efforts relate to other parts of national preparedness. A working knowledge of the NRF is essential for all federal workers potentially involved in this area, as well as for state and local emergency management professionals, non-governmental organization leaders, and concerned citizens. As you review the NRF and subsequently the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, consider how geospatial intelligence capabilities might contribute to these efforts.

The National Infrastructure Protection Plan

The September 11 attacks also focused attention on the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and key resources (CI/KR) in the US to terrorist attack or exploitation. Critical infrastructure and key resources are those that are essential to national security, safety, and economic well being. The fear is that attacks on CI/KR could impact the ability of government and the economy to function and threaten the American way of life. Consider the far ranging damage to the national economy from the September 11 attacks. Not only did New York City sustain massive physical, psychological, and economic damage, but the damage to the national economy as evidenced by reduced air travel was substantial. The vulnerability of transportation systems, hazardous material facilities, and public water and food supplies are all areas of concern. Because of this, Presidential Policy Directive/PPD-21 was issued.  This directive focuses on strengthening and maintaining secure, functioning, and resilient critical infrastructure. One of the requirements of PPD-21 is to prepare a National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP).  The NIPP outlines how government and the private sector work together to manage risks and achieve security and resilience.

Homeland Security versus Homeland Defense

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for a wide array of tasks that constitute "homeland security." The Department of Defense has its own mission of "homeland defense." To accomplish the homeland defense mission, DOD established US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. Given the traditional US commitment to civilian control over the military, and legitimate concerns about military activities at home impinging on civil rights, how should homeland security and homeland defense relate?

Optional Reading

For those students who are particularly interested or involved in this topic, you may want to look at the following Joint Publications:

• Joint Publication 3-26 Homeland Security
• Joint Publication 3-27 Homeland Defense
• Joint Publication 3-28 Civil Support

Homeland security is defined in the National Strategy for Homeland Security as, "a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur." Notice that this definition explicitly covers only terrorism and not natural or technological hazards. (This is one of the complaints about having FEMA under DHS. DHS is too focused on terrorism, even though disasters take more lives and cause more damage.) Thus it is the Department of Homeland Security's primary mission to prevent terrorist attacks within the US, and the Attorney General is responsible for investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators of terrorist attacks.

Homeland defense is defined as, "the protection of US sovereignty, territory, domestic population, and critical defense infrastructure against external threats and aggression, or other threats as directed by the President." The Department of Defense is responsible for homeland defense. However, we know that the DOD has an enormous budget and substantial capabilities to assist in domestic disaster response. Witness the resources brought to bear by LTG Raymond Honore, "The Rag'in Cajun" and his federal military task force during the response to Hurricane Katrina.

The Department of Defense is allowed to support civil authorities in domestic emergencies when authorized by the President. Defense support to civil authorities, usually referred to as "civil support," is any DOD support for domestic emergencies and designated law enforcement activities. Examples include federal troops restoring order during the Los Angeles Riots and DOD support for Hurricane Katrina. Civil support can include military forces, DOD civilian and contract personnel, and DOD agency and component assets.

As we will see in the next lesson, DOD agencies such as the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency provide essential geospatial intelligence support to FEMA and state and local agencies. The issue of classified sources and methods poses issues for such cooperation, as does the predominant military focus and culture of NGA. We will examine in the next lesson how NGA attempts to overcome these challenges.

A word of clarification is in order concerning the National Guard versus federal forces. National Guard forces (Army and Air National Guard) are organized by state and territories and are normally under the control of the state governor. This status is known as Title 32 after that section of the US Code that authorizes this arrangement. While in Title 32 status, Guardsmen serve at the direction of the governor and may carry out civil law enforcement functions such as crowd control and prevention of looting. National Guard units can be federalized by order of the President and used domestically or deployed overseas (e.g. Iraq and Afghanistan). The National Guard, along with the federal Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Reserves constitute the Reserve Component. Federal forces are organized under Title 10 of the US Code. When Guard units are federalized, they operate under Title 10. An important point is that Title 10 forces are prohibited from conducting civil law enforcement activities under Title 18, known as The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. The exception to this law is in the event the President invokes the Insurrection Act, which allows him or her to order federal forces to restore order. Note that the US Coast Guard in peacetime is subordinate to the Department of Homeland Security and may become subordinate to DOD in time of war (e.g. World War II).

Geographic Information Science has proven its worth in numerous domestic emergencies, ranging from fires in California, Canada and Maui to Hurricanes Katrina, Maria and Harvey a local fire to Hurricane Katrina. Nearly every county and municipality in the US has an Emergency 911 system, which is a geographic information system optimized to route emergency assets to respond to incidents via the most efficient route. Digital cartography, remotely sensed imagery, and global positioning systems are all essential supporting technologies.

As related by Tomaszewski, in his 2020 book Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Disaster Management 2nd Edition, GIS plays an active role in each phase of the disaster cycle, from planning and preparedness, to response, to recovery, to mitigation. Per Tomaszewski, "Regardless of how GIS is utilized, one theme that emerges from any use of GIS within any disaster cycle phase, that GIS serves an information management role within disaster management activities" (p. 114).

Geospatial technologies have also been critical in responding to international disasters such as the Haitian Earthquake and the Japanese Tsunami and subsequent nuclear catastrophes. Review Episode One, Chapter Four of the Geospatial Revolution Series for a powerful example.

Video: Geospatial Revolution / Episode One, Chapter Four: Why We Need It (5:18)

Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) contends that GIS is the linchpin technology for emergency management that brings practitioners together, reduces or removes data and organizational stovepipes, facilitates communications, and ultimately improves planning and response.

As learned in the previous section regarding GeoCONOPS, geospatial technology and products play key roles in the preparation for and response to disasters. One online resource for public and government agencies that provides geospatial tools and data is the GeoPlatform. Through GeoPlatform, users have access to:

• a one-stop shop to deliver trusted, nationally consistent data and services;
• authoritative data to support informed decision-making;
• problem-solving applications and services that are built once and can be used many times across multiple Federal agencies and other organizations;
• a shared infrastructure to host data and applications;
• a national and Federal focal point where governmental, academic, private, and public data and applications can be visualized together to inform and address national and regional issues.

Additional information can be found at GeoPlatform.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is responsible for coordinating the federal response to disasters. A geospatial tool provided by FEMA for disaster mitigation and response is HAZUS. See the below block for additional information regarding HAZUS.

Hazus is a nationally applicable standardized methodology that contains models for estimating potential losses from earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. Hazus uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to estimate physical, economic and social impacts of disasters. It graphically illustrates the limits of identified high-risk locations due to earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods. Users can then visualize the spatial relationships between populations and other more permanently fixed geographic assets or resources for the specific hazard being modeled, a crucial function in the pre-disaster planning process.

Hazus is used for mitigation and recovery, as well as preparedness and response. Government planners, GIS specialists and emergency managers use Hazus to determine losses and the most beneficial mitigation approaches to take to minimize them. Hazus can be used in the assessment step in the mitigation planning process, which is the foundation for a community's long-term strategy to reduce disaster losses and break the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction and repeated damage. Being ready will aid in recovery after a natural disaster.

Consider the following paper on "GIS: a common operational picture for public safety and emergency management." Read this assignment closely as it plays a key role in the reflection paper assignment.

The advent of the Internet has revolutionized how geospatial products are disseminated to users. Products such as Google Earth make remotely sensed data available to the masses, while apps such as Google Maps make optimized route selection analysis available to average motorists. Internet dissemination methods have enormous potential in making geospatial information rapidly available to government officials and first responders across jurisdictional lines.

Introduction

Esri and others in the geospatial community contend that GIScience should be the linchpin of homeland security and emergency preparedness that allows emergency management professionals and other governmental leaders to break out of their stovepipes, share information, and ultimately improve their communications and cooperation through a "Common Operational Picture" or COP. Susan Cutter similarly believes that geographers using geospatial techniques as part of "vulnerability science" should play a key role in emergency preparedness and response.

Scenario

For this assignment, your instructor is the Secretary of Homeland Security. You are an analyst in the Department of Homeland Security. You have a great opportunity to demonstrate your analytical and explanation skills to your supervisor, and to gain the notice of the Secretary of DHS. You can also kill your career by screwing this up—so no pressure.

The Secretary has an important policy decision to make. Should they approve or disapprove a policy that would make Geographic Information Science and Technology the “linchpin” of the US Emergency Management System. Your job is to do the analysis and present the Secretary with a policy paper that analyzes and evaluates the pros and cons of such a policy and conclude with a solid approve/disapprove recommendation that logically derives from your analysis. You must demonstrate your higher order and critical thinking skills. Note that you are an objective analyst with no pre-conceived conclusion. Your analysis must rely on evidence, data, and citations from reputable sources. No one cares about your personal opinion.

Assignment Details

Your assignment is to write a policy analysis paper, in the form of a memo, of 1000 words (plus or minus 10%), which is about four double-spaced pages in a 12-point font.

Your paper should utilize all of the content included in Lesson 3 and be:

• concise (1000 words plus/minus 10%)
• well organized
• uses one-inch margins and Times Roman or Arial font
• uses correct citations and bibliographic references
• is generally correct in terms of spelling, grammar, punctuation
• properly formatted memo: includes "FOR TRAINING USE ONLY" in large, BOLD capital letters in the header and footer. If you feel the need to put a classification, ensure it is UNCLASSIFIED for Training Use Only.
  • 

    Example Memo Template

    Credit: © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

    Writing Guideline Refresher

    Your paper should follow the guidelines you learned in Lesson 3. In order to do well, I recommend reviewing my feedback on paper #1. It is likely there are comments that will help inform your successful completion of this assignment.

    Submission

    Please submit your policy analysis paper in Microsoft Word Format using the following file naming convention: Lastname_Firstname_Paper_2.doc

    Grading

    Please see Canvas for the Lesson 8 - GRADED Paper (#2) Rubric that will be used to assess your work.

Summary

Completion of this lesson increased your understanding of:

• Cutter's concept of the "All Hazards" approach to disaster management;
• social justice issues in the disaster management process;
• federal disaster planning and response efforts, including the NRF and NIPP, as well as the roles of DHS in Homeland Security and DOD in Homeland Defense and Civil Support;
• the capabilities and limitations of geospatial intelligence and geographic information science in support of the disaster management process;
• how geospatial intelligence can be of value to the first responder;
• how geospatial intelligence for disaster management compares with other national security applications.

Before you move on to Lesson 9, double-check the Lesson 8 Checklist to make sure you have completed all of the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Ahead

Next week we'll learn about one of FEMA's most catastrophic disasters - Hurricane Katrina - and how that has reshaped the way we do emergency management now. Lesson 9 is a case study of Hurricane Katrina capped off by your third discussion forum. It should be quite interesting as several of you might have been involved in Katrina. In our next lesson, we are going to consider:

• the use of intelligence and especially geospatial intelligence in the planning for, and response to, Hurricane Katrina;
• a synthesis of the ideas of previous lessons to critique the role of intelligence and especially geo-spatial intelligence in relation to Hurricane Katrina;
• the social justice implications for geospatial intelligence applications in Hurricane Katrina;
• future applications of geospatial intelligence for disaster management.

This lesson will conclude our three-week examination of emergency preparedness and disaster management. This third lesson is a historical case study of Hurricane Katrina. Your deliverable this week is a forum with two questions and an assignment. As part of your deliverable, you will research a contemporary disaster and provide a short PowerPoint presentation (see 9.6) part of which will show how the government disaster response efforts have improved (or not) since Katrina.

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• discuss and critique the use of intelligence and especially geospatial intelligence in the planning for, and response to, Hurricane Katrina;
• synthesize the ideas of previous lessons to critique the role of intelligence and especially geospatial intelligence in relation to Hurricane Katrina;
• discuss the social justice implications for geospatial intelligence applications in Hurricane Katrina;
• compare the government response to Katrina with the government response to a more recent disaster;
• speculate on future applications of geospatial intelligence for disaster management.

Lesson 9 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.

Background on Katrina and its Aftermath

Hurricane Katrina formed on 23 August 2005 and dissipated on 31 August 2005. In her nine day life, Katrina would wreak devastation across several states and destroy the city of New Orleans. Overall, Katrina would take at least 1836 lives and cause over $80 billion in damage, making it the most expensive disaster in US history. The after effects of Katrina continue to this day. The general perception is that the US disaster preparedness and response system, including all levels of government and disaster non-governmental organizations, failed in its initial response to Katrina. Thus, governments and NGOs at all levels continue to study Katrina to prevent future debacles. The political fallout from Katrina also continues as New Orleans attempts to rebuild with a population that as of 2023, is less that 80% of the pre-Katrina number.

Hurricane Katrina survivors arrive at the Houston Astrodome Red Cross Shelter after being evacuated from New Orleans. Thousands of survivors are at the Astrodome after the Superdome became unsafe following the levee breaks in New Orleans. FEMA photo/Andrea Booher

Credit: Andrea Booher. New Orleans evacuees at the Astrodome in Texas. fema.org. (Public domain).

Optional Reading

Wikipedia article on Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina. (2023, Nov. 16, 2023) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

Frontline: "The Storm"

We begin our case study of Hurricane Katrina with a Frontline documentary available from the PBS website via streaming video. As an educator, I personally love Frontline as I believe it is fair, balanced, well researched, and hard hitting beyond anything on commercial television. I also love Frontline because they have over sixty of their best episodes available as streaming video for free.

Video: The Storm (54:34 minutes)

The Federal Response

President George Bush suffered severe criticism for the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. He charged his Assistant for Homeland Security and Counter-Terrorism to oversee a study that determined what went right and wrong, and what changes should be made to prepare for the next Katrina.

Members of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue task forces continue to help residents impacted by Hurricane Katrina. These residents were transported to the area from various neighborhoods and need to cross over the tracks to get on a second boat which will bring them to dry land.

Credit: Jocelyn Augustino. FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force rescuing. fema.org. (Public domain).

NGO Responses to Katrina

Non-Governmental Organizations play a crucial role in disaster relief. Some NGOs spring up shortly after a major disaster as groups of concerned citizens who want to help their neighbors. Other NGOs are enduring charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army that rapidly bring resources to bear in an emergency. The premier NGO for disaster relief in the United States is the American Red Cross.

The Red Cross Movement consists of the International Commission of the Red Cross/Red Crescent (ICRC), and The International Federation of the Red Cross/Red Crescent (IFRC). The ICRC based in Geneva, Switzerland is mandated by international treaty to support several functions during armed conflict including emergency humanitarian relief, protection of human rights, detainee visits, etc. The ICRC is funded by contributions by all the signatory governments to the Geneva Conventions and has a one billion Swiss Frank budget per year. The IFRC is the umbrella organization for the national Red Cross movements. Each national movement has its own charter and often has a relationship and charter from their national government to provide certain services and capabilities.

The American Red Cross plays a key role in American disaster preparedness and response. While ARC volunteers made significant contributions during Katrina, the organization acknowledged shortcomings within its operations. In an effort to improve and be prepared for future Katrinas, the ARC published "From Challenge to Action: American Red Cross Actions To Improve and Enhance Its Disaster Response and Related Capabilities For the 2006 Hurricane Season and Beyond" in June 2006.

The Worst is yet to Come

Katrina was a disaster, but some would say the catastrophe was our response to the storm. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and Katrina caused serious consideration of the American ability to deal with the consequences of a serious natural or technological disaster. Political leaders, scholars, and citizens ask the legitimate question of what will America do as a nation to be prepared for the next Katrina, nuclear accident, or major terrorist attack?

As we learned in a previous lesson, people experience risk and vulnerability to hazards differently. Quite often this is based on characteristics of social class, race, gender, and age. Hurricane Katrina brought this home to the American people as never seen before. The news media played a major role in highlighting the inequities and social justice issues Katrina made evident.

My experience is that many GIScience students are unaware of the social justice implications of GIS&T. These students often times see the technology as a neutral tool that supports good decision making. This impression is wrong. Every time a geospatial analyst makes a decision about what data or technique to use, there are potential social justice issues. At best, the non-critical geospatial analysts may make choices without thinking about the implications for traditionally disadvantaged groups. At worst, the analysts may make conscious choices to use data sets and methods that will discriminate against certain groups to the benefit of others for reasons of profit, power, influence, or favor with policy makers. My challenge to you is to recognize the implications in your choice of data, methods, and your analytical outcomes in regards to social justice issues. The technology may be value free and neutral, but the humans behind the technology are not.

Susan Cutter on Hurricane Katrina

The Social Science Research Council responded to Hurricane Katrina with an online project called "Understanding Katrina: Perspectives from the Social Sciences." As the SSRC puts it:

As analyses and "spin" of the Katrina crisis grow, we confront the sort of public issue to which a social science response is urgently needed. Accordingly, the SSRC has organized this forum addressing the implications of the tragedy that extend beyond "natural disaster," "engineering failures," "cronyism" or other categories of interpretation that do not directly examine the underlying issues-political, social and economic-laid bare by the events surrounding Katrina.

The SSRC believes the underlying failures of Katrina go far deeper than weather, bad levees, or good old boy government. The social science scholars involved seek to understand the deeper implications of underlying issues.

Dr. Susan Cutter, whom you will recall from the previous lesson, contributed the Understanding Katrina project with the essay "The Geography of Social Vulnerability: Race, Class, and Catastrophe". See reading below.

Required Reading

Read Dr. Cutter's essay on "The Geography of Social Vulnerability: Race, Class, and Catastrophe," and then examine the Understanding Katrina website and peruse any other essays that interest you. The links can be accessed from the Lesson 9 Checklist.

In the Wake of the Storm

The Russell Sage Foundation was established in 1907 by Mrs. Margaret Olivia Sage to foster the improvement of social and living conditions in the US. The foundation does this by fostering the development and dissemination of knowledge about US political, social, and economic problems. In the wake of Katrina, the foundation sponsored research on the social justice implications of Katrina. The resulting report entitled "In the Wake of the Storm: Environment, Disaster, and Race after Katrina" is a major contribution in understanding the social justice issues related to hazards, risks, and vulnerability.

The NGA and Katrina

Government and private sector geospatial intelligence practitioners have good reason to be proud of the contribution of GIS&T to Katrina response and recovery efforts. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was mentioned in the "Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina" report in Appendix B on "What Went Right":

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) started collecting key infrastructure-related information (i.e. on airports, hospitals, police stations, emergency operations centers, highways, schools, etc.) well in advance of landfall and got this information into the hands of Federal, State, and local first responders in the affected region. As the storm was tracked, NGA pre-deployed analysts and mobile systems to the affected areas that provided expertise and information on the ground and facilitated the delivery of additional information from NGA offices elsewhere. Because they had assets in place and focused on the region, NGA provided the first comprehensive overview of the damage resulting from the hurricane and flood. NGA merged imagery with other information, creating hundreds of intelligence products per day that could be used and applied by response professionals to aid in decision-making. NGA assessments were multi-dimensional, timely, relevant, and continuous. They addressed many issues, including but not limited to: recovery planning and operations, transportation infrastructure, critical and catastrophic damage, dike stability and breaches, industry damage, and hazard spills. The NGA World Wide Navigational Warning Service also provided navigation information to the U.S. Navy, Merchant Marine, and Coast Guard, and relayed messages from the National Weather Service to people at sea. NGA also aided in the location and recovery of oil platforms. The imagery activities of NGA were essential to the restoration of critical infrastructure." See Also: U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, "Geospatial Intelligence Aids Hurricane Recovery Efforts," news release, September 7, 2005.

NGA is proud of its contribution to hurricane preparedness and relief efforts.

Many of my students in this course are geospatial analysts for NGA or the military. Shawna Wolin was a student in the first offering of this class, and she is the co-author of an article in the July-August 2006 NGA Pathfinder magazine.

A Critical Look

My mission in teaching this course is to teach you to use higher order thinking skills and, most importantly, to be CRITICAL THINKERS. So let me tell you a story about trying to craft this lesson. The Penn State GEOINT faculty paid a visit to Washington to talk to key players in the geospatial intelligence business for national security, disaster preparedness, and international disaster relief. This included visiting the NGA College at Fort Belvoir and FEMA Headquarters in Washington, DC. To make a long story short, all the agency representatives thought this course and program were a great idea. They especially liked the critical thinking component of this course. However, no one wanted to take any risk by providing any unclassified case studies that were self-critical of their own operations. Perhaps these case studies do not exist or they are classified and unavailable. What is available from NGA is public affairs material like the Pathfinder magazine. Now, do not take me wrong. I have some background with the world of secrets and I understand protecting sensitive information and sources and methods. However, my experience and personal opinion is that too often secrecy is used to prevent true critical analysis, which is essential to process and produce improvement.

You just read several articles on NGA contributions during Katrina. Let me tell you about an interview with a key geospatial player from FEMA and that person's insights on NGA support for FEMA during Hurricane Katrina. (As the person did not respond to a request to provide written notes or participate in our forum, their privacy will be respected, and they will remain unnamed.)

The FEMA geospatial analysts had numerous requirements for imagery, data, and processed geospatial analytical products. NGA was on the scene and highly motivated to help. The problem was one of culture and orientation.

A historical conversation from a FEMA responder to Hurricane Katrina and some of the issues they noted:

• There were issues about data sharing due to the classified nature of some of the collection systems. Fortunately, commercial imagery solved many of these problems. However, the culture of secrecy hinders interagency coordination between defense oriented agencies such as NGA, and other federal, state, local, and NGO agencies who do not share that culture nor have the required clearances.
• NGA did not understand FEMA procedures and processes and thus did not always provide usable products. For example, FEMA must do damage assessments at various scales to include house by house assessments. These assessments drive the amount of relief funds that FEMA provides to individual homeowners. Katrina caused devastation on a scale that overwhelmed traditional ground damage assessment survey methods. Geospatial approaches seemed a natural solution to conduct damage assessment on such destruction. NGA used remote sensing products processed with GIS to provide damage assessment maps. Unfortunately, the map data did not suit the needs of FEMA and was unusable. The issue was educating the NGA analysts on FEMA customer needs, and having NGA be nimble enough to understand and craft technical solutions capable of creating useful products in a timely fashion.
• FEMA is a civilian agency that has been in crisis for over a decade. NGA is a Department of Defense combat support agency, as well as a member of the national intelligence community. There are cultural gaps between NGA (DOD really) and FEMA that get in the way of truly seamless interagency coordination.

(Note to students: consider for your case study in the related Canvas Discussion forum- Fema was in crisis at the time- is this still the case? Or how have things changed?)

Now, for those of you at NGA who may have worked Katrina and might be fuming, do not take the above observations as a criticism of you or NGA. My point is that to get better, you have to be willing to take a hard and candid look at what went wrong so that you can get better for the next time. Those of us outside the federal agencies hope they are doing this internally because they certainly are not doing it in view of the public. And that is a shame because there are citizens and scholars who might well have an outside perspective useful to the discussion.

Now consider the lessons learned from members of the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) who were involved in Katrina. Read the report below and then look over the resources on the ASPRS website. The presentations are especially interesting. Andrew MacInnes of Plaquemines Parrish, LA is a graduate of the Penn State online master's in GIScience Program. His presentation on "Airborne and Satellite Imagery Use and Collection for Katrina and Rita is very interesting, and it has some amazing images.

As a final reading, consider this most interesting essay from the SSRC Understanding Katrina Project. Note the author's academic background and affiliation. Consider the implications of her insights for both geospatial intelligence and the broader issues we have been studying.

Summary

This lesson was a case study of Hurricane Katrina, and it concludes our three-lesson section on domestic disaster preparedness. In this section of the course, we examined the fundamentals of emergency management, including the National Response Plan and the National Incident Management System. We also examined the very important and often ignored issue of social justice in disaster preparedness and response, as well as the contribution of GIS&T to emergency management. This final case study of Hurricane Katrina allowed you to:

• discuss and critique the use of intelligence and especially geospatial intelligence in the planning for, and response to, Hurricane Katrina;
• synthesize the ideas of previous lessons to critique the role of intelligence and especially geo-spatial intelligence in relation to Hurricane Katrina;
• discuss the social justice implications for geospatial intelligence applications in Hurricane Katrina;
• compare the government response to Katrina with the government response to a more recent disaster;
• speculate on future applications of geospatial intelligence for disaster management.

Final Tasks

Before you move on to Lesson 10, double-check the Lesson 9 Checklist to make sure you have completed all of the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Ahead

Congratulations!! You have completed lessons 1 through 9 and are now ready to move on to the final lesson - Lesson 10 - Trends in Geospatial Intelligence.

For the final lesson, we will explore some other applications of geospatial intelligence and reflect on the future of the field. I will also ask that you complete two course surveys that will provide feedback to PSU and to me regarding the course content, delivery, graded requirements, etc. This feedback is essential to improving the course, so I appreciate your candid responses.

See you at the Critique!

In this lesson, we will be exploring some additional applications of geospatial intelligence, including areas of US Law Enforcement, International Human Relief operations, and Cyberspace applications.  In addition, we are asking you to do your own investigation into new applications. We will have an abbreviated discussion at the end of the lesson.

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to: 

• discuss some of the applications of geospatial intelligence to law enforcement analysis;
• discuss the application of geospatial intelligence to international humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations;
• discuss some GEOINT and cyberspace considerations.

Lesson 10 will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson.

Law enforcement analysis promotes effective policing in areas such as conducting investigations and intelligence operations, planning and managing resources, and deterring criminal activity. Geographic information science and technology (GIS&T) and geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) assist in these areas. From the beginning of an investigation to its conclusion, analysis can aid in determining what is needed in an investigation and where it can be collected. Analytical charts, maps, and reports help guide the operation. Analysis can identify crime trends and provide strategic assessments that assist policy makers in resource allocation and long-term planning. Law enforcement analysis supports the deterrence and prevention of crime through identifying patterns of criminal incidents, forecasting threats to the community, assisting in the effective deployment of patrol resources, and supporting community policing efforts.

Before discussing the various applications of GIS&T and GEOINT in law enforcement analysis, it is useful to examine several behavioral theories, looking at them from a geospatial perspective. These theories are not discussed in detail, but they do build upon each other. The material includes references for additional research. Individuals who have studied criminology might be familiar with these theories. These theories also have applications to studying terrorism. 

Behavioral Theories from a Geospatial Perspective

Rational Choice Theory

Choices are made based on opportunities and rewards.

George Homans built a series of explanatory principles based on the assumption that people make rational choices about how to maximize benefits in light of their priorities. This perspective suggests that individuals, such as criminals and terrorists, will select their targets and define the means to achieve their goals in an explainable manner. (Homans, G. 1974. Social Behavior, Its Elementary Forms, 2nd ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich)

Routine Activity Theory

Opportunities change based on changes in behavior.

Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson studied crime as an event and highlighted the relationship of these events to space and time.  Routine activity theory explains an event through three essential elements that converge in space and time – the potential offender with the capacity to commit an offense, a suitable target or victim, and the absence of guardians capable of protecting the target or victim. (Cohen, L. & Felson, M. 1979. Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity approach. American Sociological Review, 44, 588-608)

Crime Pattern Theory

Crimes occur where offender’s space overlaps with victim’s space.

Crime pattern theory highlights spatial ties connecting crime, targets, and patterns of movement of offenders. The theory relates that offenders commit crimes near areas where they spend most of their time and along routes that connect them. The concept of space is essential to crime pattern theory because the characteristics of spaces influence the likelihood of a crime. (Brantingham, P. L. & Brantingham, P. J. 1993. Environmental, routine, and situation: Toward a pattern theory of crime. Advances in Criminological Theory 5: 259-294)

Environmental Design Theory

Identify and alter geographical characteristics that contribute to criminal predation.

Crime prevention through environmental design is a micro/neighborhood approach to identifying conditions of the physical and social environment that provide opportunities for criminality. It uses such mechanisms as real and symbolic barriers, defined areas of influence, and opportunities for surveillance to bring an environment under the control of its residents (Jeffrey, C. R. 1971. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Newman, O. 1973. Defensible Space. New York: Collier Books)

Following are several analytic techniques that can be used to produce geospatial intelligence, considering the nature of intelligence and the grounding of the previously described theories.

Crime Mapping

Crime mapping is the process of using a geographic information system to conduct spatial analysis of crime problems and other police-related issues. It facilitates visual and statistical analyses of crime, allows linkages based on common variables, and helps to communicate results of analysis. (Boba, R. 2022. Crime Analysis and Crime Mapping 5^th edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.)

Police data includes: criminal incidents, arrests, calls for service, and traffic crashes and incidents. To see how an agency has incorporated crime mapping, go to the Philadelphia Police Department's Crime Maps and Stats site.

Crime map showing variety of crime-related activities.

Credit: Crime Report by Brett L. from flickr.com is licensed under the CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED license.

Geographic Distribution Analysis

Geographic distribution analysis examines the occurrence of events over a geographic area to determine what can be concluded about the activity.  To complete a geographic distribution analysis, data on the locations of activities are collected and plotted on a map. Then, the information is reviewed to create a summary of what is depicted and from which to draw conclusions as to what the information means. (Peterson, M. B. 1994. Applications in Criminal Analysis. Westport, CT: Greenwood)

The following is an interactive website from Esri on crime mapping that allows you to analyze the geographic distribution of crime in the US versus various demographics. Crime Mapping.

Geographic Flow Chart

The map below depicts a geographic flow chart that shows the movement of activities from one location to another. To complete this analysis, an analyst would summarize the information and draw conclusions about the activity to provide to a decision-maker.

Spatial Analysis

Spatial analysis explores relationships within and between data in space and provides the ability to define characteristics of the data as they relate to other information. (Steinberg, S. L. & Steinberg, S. J. 2015. GIS Research Methods. Redlands, CA: Esri Press) In the criminal justice field, spatial analysis creates a snapshot of crime incidents and related factors within a geographic area. Looking for patterns is one aspect of spatial analysis. Patterns can be found in locations, distances, direction, and hot spots. One application of spatial analysis in the fight against human trafficking can be found at A Global Display of Human Trafficking Incidents and News.

Map depicting homicides in Washington, DC, 2004-2006.

Public Domain Image: 

Credit: Homicides in Washington, DC by User:Aude from Wikimedia (Public Domain).

You will explore a website and a publication that lay out the basics of crime analysis and crime map production.

The website is from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). The NIJ is the research and development and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice.

The US Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) was established in 1994. Since then, COPS has provided over $11.3 billion in assistance to state and local law enforcement agencies that included hiring additional police officers and running specialized training and workshops. In 2001 COPS funded the Police Foundation to conduct an “Introduction to Crime Analysis Mapping and Problem Solving” training course. 

International disasters can be even more complex than domestic disasters. In the last lesson on Hurricane Katrina, we saw the challenges faced by the US government, state and local governments, and NGOs in dealing with a major hurricane disaster. Consider, however, that only one set of national laws applied, most people spoke the same language, and the resources of the rest of the US could be brought to bear. Now consider the challenge for US government and NGO personnel when working on an international disaster relief mission. The host nation government is in charge and their laws apply. There could be several affected nations, thus there could be several sets of laws and several different languages with which to contend. The affected nation could quite probably be a developing world nation with far less infrastructure and fewer resources than what is found in the US. The affected populations may have a far higher number of citizens who are of a lower socio-economic status, with far fewer personal resources than in the US (think social justice issues on a much larger scale). US government elements will usually work with several other partner nations providing relief, as well as many more local and international NGOs. The point here is that international humanitarian relief operations can be very complex.

Just as GIS&T has a major contribution to make to domestic disaster preparedness and relief, it also has great potential for support of international humanitarian aid and relief operations. Many of the same challenges found in domestic activities apply to international efforts. US Government geospatial intelligence (already challenged at the inter-agency level) faces even greater challenges and constraints when dealing with partner nations and organizations that might not be particularly sympathetic or friendly to the United States. Read the following selections and consider how geospatial intelligence can be leveraged by governments, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to support international disaster relief and humanitarian aid agencies. Consider the limitations faced by the US government and how such limitations might be overcome.

You will watch a short video from the Geospatial Revolution series on applications of geospatial technology in the 2010 Haitian Earthquake. You will then review three short articles that approach this topic from different perspectives.

Dr. Michael Thomas is the original author of Geography 489 " Cyber-Geography in Geospatial Intelligence", and is also one of the instructors for Geography 882. He has worked as an analyst for HQEUCOM in Stuttgart, Germany, in the Cyberspace Division, as a Professor of Cyberwarfare Studies at the AIr War College and USAF Cyber College at Maxwell AFB and is currently the Deputy Director of the National Cyber Range Complex (NCRC) - Charleston Node. He is very interested in how geographic information science and technology (GIS&T) can be applied to the emerging field of Cyberspace both within and outside the government. There are two dimensions to Cyberattacks – collecting of intelligence from nations that are of interest to us, and realizing that others are constantly collecting on us.

Information is the only asset that is stolen by replication. As such, securing it is problematic because for it to be of any use it also needs to be available for access. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the US government began instituting information protection policies aimed at increasing homeland security. The aim of these policies was to minimize the targets of opportunity that could be exploited by potential attackers using publicly available information they might obtain from authoritative public (federal, state and local) sources in planning attacks against the US homeland.

One of the outcomes of these policies is the “National Cybersecurity Strategy” that was released in March 2023. The DoD has stated that “The Department and the nation have vulnerabilities in cyberspace. Our reliance on cyberspace stands in stark contrast to the inadequacy of our cybersecurity – the security of the technologies that we use each day.”  DoD strategy flows from both the National Cybersecurity Strategy and the National Defense Strategy.

There are thousands of networks, incalculable data assets freely in the open, and adversaries – individuals, groups, and nation-states, that can and will use our own information sources against us. It raises the question – how much information should a free society place in the open?

Information Technology Infrastructure

Information technology infrastructure has changed in the last 10 years. Currently, an integration of geolocating technologies with communications infrastructures has made possible dynamic changes in Northern Africa and parts of the Middle East.

Let us examine a few facts concerning the integration of technologies in Africa over the last decade.

Undersea cables surrounding the African continent in 2009 (l), and in 2012 (r).

Credit: Oxford Internet Institute: Development and Broadband Internet Access in East Africa

Low-cost, abundant, easily distributed information lowers transaction costs, which affects the nature of institutions and organizations. When internet connectivity was mostly carried on satellites it (and the transaction costs) was high. As these cables come online, the transactions costs are going to come down. Infrastructure increases in Africa will eventually lead to increases in information flow and associated increases in relational aspects between distant points. What could formerly be characterized as "Terra Incognita" is changing with increases in infrastructure.

Would the "Arab Spring" have been possible before 2009? The lack of infrastructure makes it doubtful. Once all the cables are in place, Africa's total bandwidth will increase from 6 terabytes/second (tbps) to well over 40tbps. Currently, there are over half a billion Africans connected to the global system through cell phones and the Internet, and this number is going to dramatically increase.

Africa's increase in fiber-optic cable infrastructure has been accompanied by internal increases in connectivity, predominantly represented in the wireless sector that does not rely on expensive physical infrastructure in order to exist.

Credit: ITU World Telecommunications/ICT Indicators database

The graph above shows the continent-wide penetration rate of different Information-Communication technologies (ICTs). Notable here is the huge increase in wireless penetration - almost 33% continent-wide that does not require as much infrastructure as traditional landlines. This continent-wide picture does not paint a fully accurate picture. While the overall number is correct, the penetration rates in North Africa show a different story when reviewed separately. Too much variation is concealed in the overall continental rate but becomes apparent when examined more regionally. In the Mahgreb, the rates were almost twice as much as the continental average and increased steadily to over 100% in some places, meaning that some subscribers actually had more than 1 phone by 2010.

Using Africa as a Meta-model, the combinations of 24-7 GPS location technology (external infrastructure and global in nature), the exponential increase of external connectivity of fiber optic planned or already installed since 2009 (external infrastructure and regional in nature) and the exponential growth of the wireless phone market (internal infrastructure and local in nature) makes the future of the continent as a whole unknowable using current methods. What has already occurred in the Mahgreb may pale in comparison with what's to come in the near term, based on the impact of georectified enabled ICTs in sub-Saharan Africa.

Credit: Original graphic by M. Thomas.

The former Director of National Intelligence (DNI), General James Clapper, hinted at the IC's interests in some of the aspects of intelligence collection in an interview in the December 2011 issue of Geospatial Intelligence Review,

"I see all kinds of benefits (from combining collection and analysis). There are a lot of examples that I can't cite because they are classified. But I will say that I think we will be better able to address an Arab Spring, for example, and better able to anticipate it and respond to it."

The richness of available open source data, generated either by social media or other sources, is too complex to accumulate and analyze using current approaches. Currently, analysts often use multiple sources of information in order to create actionable intelligence for a mission. The datasets are large in volume and are likely stored in multiple databases and multiple locations. This requires tailored queries into the systems to be prespecified, filtering significant amounts of data before an analyst has an opportunity to decide if it is important. This query-retrieve paradigm effectively removes the possibility of the "lucky find," because the analyst has to already know what they want to query. Looking forward, the datasets are becoming more connected and the transaction costs are decreasing. The volume of pseudo-humint available from social media is one result of the increase in this connectivity infrastructure, and the impacts are both unpredictable and unforeseen. At a minimum, it raises the following questions for our consideration:

1. The tacit-explicit knowledge transformation underway is potentially making disconnected areas such as Africa less a "Terra-Incognita" than ever before. What will this mean in terms of the geo-strategic framework?
2. How seriously is the IC reviewing the potentials of Web 2.0 enabled sources geospatially enabled with "Volunteer Geographic Information?"
3. How might peer and near peer opponents make use of the models?

Emerging technologies also pose unique challenges and threats. ChatGPT, when queried about the threats in cyber to GeoInt replied:

Reference:

CHAT GPT, response to “threats in cyber to GeoInt,” CHAPT GPT, Dec. 3, 2023.

Summary

Completion of this lesson:

• introduced you to the basics of crime mapping and analysis, and contemplation of how geospatial intelligence applies to this field;
• introduced some questions about how geospatial intelligence applies to the area of international disaster response and humanitarian relief;
• introduced ideas concerning cyberspace and Geoint;
• completed the World Campus SEEQ survey;
• provided your feedback to the instructors on specific components of the course.

Final Tasks

Before you close your books, double-check the Lesson 10 Checklist to make sure you have completed all of the required activities for this lesson.

Looking Back

This concludes the course. It was a pleasure having you in this class, and thank you for all your hard work in completing this course. All of you have been very professional, and I have learned as much from you as I hope you have learned from the course.

Check the Grades to ensure you have credit for all your assignments. I will submit final grades to Penn State no later than 48 hours after the final day of class, and I will also email individually with your course grade. It will probably be a few weeks before the grades are officially posted in eLion (e.g., your transcript).

Do not forget to register for the next course. We wish you the best in the future and hope the knowledge and skills you gained from this course will contribute to your success.

Mark Corson, Greg Thomas, Mike Thomas, and Steve Handwerk

GEOG 882 Course Faculty