Mission Command and Hurricane

GEOINT Role in Responding to Hurricane Katrina

The American federal government's response operation in the aftermath of the 2005 disaster, Hurricane Katrina, establishes a crucial military necessity of improving the nation's evaluation, decision-making, and response processes. Operational art, design and other similar concepts apparently offer a means for framing the operational issue. However, both the aforementioned elements are unable to effectively improve commanders' capacity of grasping the condition. Processes like those mentioned above prove inadequate when it comes to solving key questions and conveniently translating into missions for troops to execute. The process of situation evaluation commences with the examination of a map by military staff members and commands. This is where GEOINT (Geospatial Intelligence) comes in. GEOINT refers to an emergent subfield in the intelligence domain responsible for offering comprehensive information analyses, an operational environment evaluation, and a way to examine potential issues which might surface. GEOINT represents the utilization and examination of geospatial information and imagery for describing, evaluating, and visually depicting geographically-indicated activities and physical features on our planet.[footnoteRef:1] This paper aims at appraising GEOINT's role with respect to responding to the Hurricane Katrina. [1: Department of Defense. Joint Publication 2-03. Geospatial Intelligence Support to Joint Operations. 31 March 2007.pg vii]

GEOINT's probable value resides in the field's capacity of bringing analysis for informing every phase of the mission command's commander visualization. The Mission Command Field Manual 6-0's Chapter IV states that the commander visualization activity encompasses the intellectual procedure of attaining a clear grasp of the present condition of the force relative to its environment and its adversaries. Commanders constantly create a mental picture of their military operations by means of situation comprehension, operations planning, assessment and implementation.[footnoteRef:2] The foremost step for the commander is: development of situational grasp. In other words, military commanders are required to grasp the situation prior to commencing planning activities. [2: Department of the Army. Field Manual 6-0: Mission Command. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 2003. p.4-0.]

The next step for commanders is contemplating where they need to be headed and how their operations will play out, in addition to understanding the effectiveness of their troops. Operation visualization commences with planning, continuing all through the course of the implementation phase and ending with the step of mission completion. Commanders direct their units' planning endeavors by offering support, ideas on purpose, and key information requirements. The imbedded shared operating image of GEOINT aids commanders in ensuring their visualization remains up to date. Lastly, evaluation takes place in every visualization phase during mission command. At first, commanders will bank on their team members, their own individual experiences, and evaluations from the units charged with mission implementation. GEOINT's capability of organizing facts, querying particular facts, and offering trend analysis services facilitates constant evaluation through each visualization phase. The Geospatial Intelligence process, facilitated by a thorough examination of GISs (geographic information systems) presents to commanders the science which supplements the commander's application of military tactics. GISs facilitate the visualization process by offering software tools which allow multifaceted, complex information display capable of more precisely representing a given scenario. Further, it allows estimations, predictions, and forecasting. GEOINT helps Mission Command through the establishment of a base for collective understanding, besides the capacity of analyzing layered information which aids subordinate troops' parallel planning process.[footnoteRef:3] [3: Andy Sanchez. Leveraging Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) in Mission Command. ARMY COMMAND AND GENERAL STAFF COLL FORT LEAVENWORTH KS SCHOOL OF ADVANCED MILITARY STUDIES, 2009 p.4-5]

The real potential of GEOINT resides in its capacity of foreseeing scenarios by creating analytical prototypes which offer commanders and military planners a tool for anticipating changes and their impacts within their operational domains. This offers context and helps enhance understanding. An effectively utilized GEOINT system offers the aforementioned personnel valuable prototype-derived estimates which support evaluations, giving rise to a more precise projection of their operational setting and situation. Civil governments and private entities have been employing GISs for many years. GIS capability employment in the areas of homeland security and disaster response is a relatively new venture.[footnoteRef:4] [4: Andy Sanchez. Leveraging Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) in Mission Command. p.3]

The 2005 Hurricane Katrina features on the list of one of America's most devastating hurricanes. A majority of publications on this natural disaster revolve around governmental incapacity to react on time and alleviate affected citizens' suffering. As it didn't coordinate a consolidated rescue and response effort, it ended up failing the many institutions that participated in the consequence management and response endeavor. Homeland Security's recommendations only revolved around uniting efforts among governmental levels and strengthening working relationships. This tactic, while helpful, was unsuccessful in providing a tangible means to attain required outcomes and improve the government's response within its National Response Framework (NRF). The required strategy was delivered by GEOINT's modeling abilities. Planners need to inform decision-making entities of their possible requirements by utilizing GEOINT modeling abilities for anticipating, estimating and comprehending a storm's effect once it hits land. GEOINT's modeling abilities help coordinate governmental response more effectively at every level and decrease redundancy, thereby improving unity of efforts. GEOINT, after all, is a primary analytical tool capable of guaranteeing the efforts expended by civilian as well as governmental volunteers are complementary to one another. By employing GEOINT for developing a situational grasp of a storm's effect on a given area, decision-making entities can concentrate on bettering support organizations' efficacy. GEOINT capacities are able to improve the disaster response capacity of decision-making entities; nevertheless, understanding GEOINT's application prior and subsequent to Hurricane Katrina is imperative. An examination of GEOINT application days before the hurricane hit land and immediately prior to its striking land helps account for why decision-making bodies couldn't comprehensively comprehend the situation: It was because they lacked complete awareness and understanding of what GEOINT was capable of providing.[footnoteRef:5] [5: Ibid p.14-15]

The NGA (National GEOINT Agency) can be counted among the few organizations at the federal level that provided timely assistance and eased the recovery process for every entity engaged in the task of consequence management and disaster response. The Agency commenced collection of important infrastructure-linked information (e.g., airports, educational institutions, hospitals, emergency operations facilities, police stations, and highways) well beforehand. This effort ensured resident first responders, state agencies and federal agencies were equipped with crucial information. As the former two groups of responders lacked an understanding of their NRF-related role, they did not seek NGA guidance when planning. However, luckily, the Agency predicted their requirements, and even directed the right things into the right hands on time. At the time of the hurricane's approach, it placed mobile systems and analysts in places where the hurricane would strike, offering data and expertise, and enabling extra information delivery from Agency offices in other (non-vulnerable) areas. As it had resources ready and concentrated in these areas, it could offer the foremost detailed outline of the hurricane's damage. The Agency combined imagery and other facts on an everyday basis, developing innumerable intelligence products for supporting response decision-makers. Its evaluations were complex, constant, well-timed, and pertinent. These very GIS analysts delivered quantitative facts to decision makers for facilitating recovery at every governmental level[footnoteRef:6]. [6: Ibid p.16]

GEOINT's products enabled coordination across the city when it came to rescuing stranded citizens. GIS was employed by healthcare workers for choosing undamaged areas to operate from. Relief personnel utilized information derived from GISs for positioning their food distribution facilities, choosing clean but densely-populated places. The public works department employed GEOINT for coordinating their efforts towards restoring sewers, water, and many other basic facilities offered to residents. Law enforcers were able to more effectively supervise neighborhoods, establishing block-by-block 'safe zones'. GEOINT facilitated every abovementioned first responder activity. But unfortunately, the first responders operating from different levels undertook their tasks separately without coordination and collaboration. Responsible for this was a lack of united efforts to grasp the situation at hand. There was no central authority for tracking and synchronizing federal, state and local organizational efforts, reflecting a void in cohesive effort. Failure at linking governmental organizations to one single GEOINT database led to the eventual lack of joint situational grasp. Visualization of collective understanding enables quicker, more efficient synchronization of response and recovery endeavors.[footnoteRef:7] [7: Ibid p.17]

The USACE (United States Army Corps of Engineers) products developed before the hurricane struck land offered the most superior visual depiction of GEOINT's positive impact on federal, local and state preparation and response. These products concentrated on the broader resource requirements.[footnoteRef:8] The Army Corps revealed key resource requirements, including necessary water and ice truckloads for supporting citizens in hurricane-hit regions.[footnoteRef:9] Further, they employed hurricane-modeling drawings for depicting predicted debris models on the basis of forecasted wind velocity and rainfall in hurricane-hit areas.[footnoteRef:10] Authorities believed these geographical information products were the preliminary step towards recovery endeavors; they fed data into a databank which tracked rescued citizens and their time of rescue.[footnoteRef:11] The Army Corps presented the lone modeling-kind GEOINT tools which facilitated rescue, response and recovery programs. While GIS technology helps decision-making entities react after disaster strikes, its modeling potential helps prepare for unforeseen emergencies and place resources to effectively aid recovery operations. [8: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. --CEERP: Disaster Impact Models and Mapping: Past Storm Events. Corps of Engineers Emergency Response Portal. 2005 https://eportal.usace.army.mil/sites/ENGLink/DisasterImpactModels slide 1 Accessed 10 April 2017.] [9: Ibid, slides 2-6] [10: Ibid, slides 7-12] [11: Geoplace.com. --Corps of Engineers Create Maps for Hurricane Relief. Geoplace: Government Connection, 2005. http://www.geoplace.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArt icle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=3F1301FE13004D11B1DCC6E94ECF32 36. Accessed 10 April 2017]

GEOINT offers incident first responders and commanders exhaustive, constantly-updated insights into what transpires prior to, in the course of, and subsequent to emergencies.[footnoteRef:12] GIS expert-developed GEOINT products facilitated the development of a COP (common operating picture) which was employed by governmental bodies at every level for synchronizing state and local rescue operations and avoiding effort duplication. A COP's information management paradigm is built using an intersection of key infrastructure, strategic basemaps, emergency operations and intelligence information. Base maps offer a thorough outlook of situations and activities for improved decision-making. Geospatial Intelligence's blending of the above elements into one COP supported first responder efforts in the course of consequence management -- a time where everything appeared to go wrong.[footnoteRef:13] [12: ESRI. --Homeland Security: GIS for Preparing and Protecting a Nation. ESRI Publications. Redlands, CA 2007. http://www.esri.com/industries/federal/gis-business/brochures.html. Accessed 10 April 2017] [13: Andy Sanchez. Leveraging Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) in Mission Command.pg 20-21]

Emergency Operations Centers' (EOCs) roles in disaster response may be taken as examples of situations where GEOINT COPs facilitate recovery. EOCs offer a focal coordination and control point in key crises and incidents. Command center workers need to combine data and engage in swift decision-making as events progress. GIS-enabled GEOINT provides facts and figures to EOC workers to aid their situational awareness. If assimilated and investigated together, GEOINT information may offer EOC staff updated information on resource/asset status during response.[footnoteRef:14] [14: ESRI. --Mapping the Future of Public Safety: GIS for Disaster and Emergency Management. ESRI brochure. Redlands, CA 2007. pg. 9]

Though EOCs were in place much before the hurricane struck land, floods and strong winds disallowed landline and cellphone communication. Individual EOCs functioned in a separately, unable to synchronize efforts or effectively seek more resources after the damage went beyond state and local capabilities. City and county maps coupled with satellite geospatial images helped EOCs reacquire situational understanding and minimize redundancy in hurricane-hit regions. As EOCs are akin to tactical military operation facilities, they function as key data and decision diffusion managers. As inter-EOC communication is critical to synchronizing efforts in an operational region, the commander makes sure his environmental picture fits that of subordinates. Non-synchronization among the many EOCs leads to a collapse of the processes of situational grasp, implementation and evaluation visualization.[footnoteRef:15] [15: Andy Sanchez. Leveraging Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) in Mission Command.pg 22]