Mission Command and Hurricane Essay

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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.

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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….....

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