Overview of Department of Defense land use in the desert southwest, including major natural resource management challenges1
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Published:January 01, 2014
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CiteCitation
William W. Doe*†, III, Timothy J. Hayden*, Robert M. Lacey*, William D. Goran*, 2014. "Overview of Department of Defense land use in the desert southwest, including major natural resource management challenges", Military Geosciences in the Twenty-First Century, Russell S. Harmon, Sophie E. Baker, Eric V. McDonald
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Abstract
Department of Defense military land use of the desert southwest includes a wide spectrum of military weapons testing, force-on-force training, and various types of flight training. The desert southwest provides a critical asset for the U.S. military— open space. Installations in the desert southwest tend to be much larger than installations in other regions of the nation, with several exceeding 400,000 ha. This open-space asset has allowed the military to historically establish large training areas and ranges on installations and to define expansive air maneuver regions above these ranges and above the vast public lands of other agencies. It also offers critical training and testing areas that are analogs to similar worldwide environments where the military operates. Training and testing activities are conducted in the three-dimensional land and air space that replicates the modern battle space. Land and air space use is highly variable among installations depending on mission requirements. Natural resource management challenges include the large spatial extent of lands and air space under Department of Defense management, highly variable military land-use requirements, significant endangered species regulatory and conservation requirements, encroachment and Base Realignment and Closure requirements, competition for water resources, and climate change. Department of Defense natural resource managers attempt to meet these challenges through interagency cooperative agreements, integrated natural resource management plans, and Department of Defense sustainable range programs.
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Contents
Military Geosciences in the Twenty-First Century

Military geosciences are concerned with using the broad scope of the earth sciences for military purposes. These purposes range from direct support for military operations to a broad spectrum of non-combat military activities and military land management applications. Historically, the focus has been on geology and geography, but other earth science disciplines such as geophysics, remote sensing, and geocomputation have become increasingly important as a consequence of technological progress made during the final decades of the twentieth century. The eighteen chapters in this volume address the critical aspects of the role of geosciences in military undertakings by focusing on historical perspectives, geoscience for military operations, and military environmental stewardship.
GeoRef
- arid environment
- climate change
- endangered species
- government agencies
- land use
- military facilities
- military geology
- Mojave Desert
- natural resources
- North America
- public lands
- Sonoran Desert
- Southwestern U.S.
- terrestrial environment
- testing
- three-dimensional models
- United States
- water resources
- U. S. Department of Defense