Water Supply Maps for the Western Front (Belgium and Northern France) Developed by British,German and American Military Geologists during World War I: Pioneering Studies in Hydrogeology from Trench Warfare

Abstract

Innovations for the British Army during World War I included use of a military geologist to compile 'water supply' maps and to guide well drilling. Between June 1915 and November 1918, W. B. R. King served as a staff lieutenant at General Headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force deployed on the Western Front. He pioneered British development of water supply maps for parts of Belgium and northern France, in several different styles and at scales of 1 : 100 000, 1 : 250 000 and 1 : 40 000. These assisted planning for advances into enemy-occupied territory or the development of water supply infrastructure within the region held ultimately by five British armies: in total about 1,500,000 men with some 500,000 horses and mules, each man/animal requiring on average 10 gallons (45 L) per day of potable water. The maps guided emplacement of over 470 military boreholes to supply drinking water to British forces, especially in provinces underlain by Cretaceous Chalk: Picardy and Artois. German forces also made use of military geologists at the Front, but in much greater number: up to about 300 in total. Water supply tasks were given high priority, and German water supply maps were finally standardized like other medium scale German geotechnical maps at 1 : 25 000. Six geologists were deployed with the American Expeditionary Force late in the war, and for their sector of the Front compiled at least two water supply maps at 1 : 80 000, and 11 at 1 : 50 000 that were supported by explanatory reports. Wartime imperatives thus generated expertise in hydrogeology that became available for civilian use post-war, and laid the foundation for further military development during World War II.     

Reflections on Arno Peters (1916–2002)

Abstract

This paper describes a methodology for evaluating the planimetric accuracy of three US Civil War maps using GIS and spatial analytical techniques. The case-study is the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee and, in particular, maps depicting the events of December 31, 1862. An examination of the objectives, limitations and techniques employed by the topographer engineers who created the maps provides focus for the quantitative analysis and establishes the historical context needed to understand how and why the maps were constructed. The paper shows how GIS and spatial analysis can be utilized to document vanishing historic landscapes and reconstructing where certain historical events took place.     

On the Origins of Analytical Cartography

This paper examines the development of analytical cartography and the contributions Waldo Tobler has made to it, starting well before his definition of the subject in 1976. Analytical cartography's roots in World War II and the Cold War are examined, and the influences and precedents for the academic course that Tobler described are discussed. The systems of knowledge production developed for analytical cartography in its social context are summarized and are found to show a powerful dependence on a working relationship between academia, industry, government, and the intelligence mapping community. Current research trends in analytical cartography, including the organization of research, its institutions, and its priorities, are discussed, and it is proposed that declassifying the "missing pool" of analytical cartographic research literature could be of great benefit in the future. The four-way academic/industrial/government/intelligence partnership is seen as an opportune direction forward for analytical cartography. The next generational shift in the center of the discipline may occur in networks that even Waldo Tobler did not anticipate.     

American Cartographic Transformations during the Cold War

A great convergence of cartography, secrecy, and power occurred during the Cold War. In the American case, a complex series of interactions between secret and classified programs and institutions and their publicly accessible counterparts accomplished both traditional and novel objectives of military geographic intelligence. This process also yielded the World Geodetic System, a mass-centered "figure of the earth" at accuracies adequate for warfare with intercontinental ballistic missiles. A structural and institutional separation developed between enterprises charged with overhead data acquisition systems, which were classified at increasingly high levels of secrecy, and those responsible for data reduction, analysis, and mapping systems, which remained largely unclassified and publicly accessible, in part to conceal the classified data acquisition systems. This structural separation destabilized photogrammetric mapping by displacing systems that privileged dimensional stability with systems that privileged novel sensor types more appropriate to Cold War geo-political objectives and constraints. Eventually, photogrammetric mapping systems were re-stabilized by successfully implementing analytical solutions imposed in digital mapping and data management systems. This achievement re-privileged dimensional stability, now redefined to the new media of geo-referenced digital data. In the early 1970s these developments culminated in advanced research projects of Military Geographic Intelligence Systems (MGIS). Their deployment in the Vietnam War was both their apex and their undoing. In the aftermath, classified mapping and database systems diverged from civilian versions of MGIS, which became known as Geographic Information Systems (GIS).     

Allied Military Model Making during World War II

It is generally accepted that the three-dimensional nature of the digital terrain model enhances our visualization of surfaces. Modern techniques enable a detailed landscape to be constructed as a facsimile of reality that provides an opportunity to move through or fly over the landscape. Given these benefits, it is little surprise that simulations using digital terrain models are employed as essential visual aids for briefing and training military personnel prior to land, air, and sea operations. Though these capabilities are significant, they are not necessarily, in the basic sense, new. This paper traces the development and examines the role of terrain models made by the Allies during World War II, a period prior to the development of computer-based modeling. Though made from basic materials, these sophisticated terrain models were hand crafted by enlisted sculptors, architects, stage designers, and artists, who carefully modeled a sculpture of the landscape to be an invaluable aid during key military operations of World War II.     

广角反射方式下观测系统设计与优化

近年来，广角反射作为地震勘探获得野外高质量地震数据的一种重要方法，愈来愈受到人们的关注，作者在本文中，通过对影响广角反射能量几个主要因素的研究与分析，提出了在广角反射方式下设计与优化观测系统的思路，以及怎样获得高质量地震资料的方法，通过正演模拟分析，得到了一些重要的结论，对野外地震数据的采集具有一定指导作用。     

The Politics of the Map in the Early Twentieth Century

Drawing on material from several countries, principally Britain, France, and the United States, this paper considers the politics of mapmaking in the years before, during, and immediately after World War I. Following a discussion of some noteworthy but hitherto overlooked mapping projects from the period around 1900, the paper examines the wartime production of maps as aids to geopolitical strategy in three Allied cities—London, Paris, and New York—with particular reference to the major geographical societies in these locations.     

Maps and Mapping Technologies of the Persian Gulf War

Assessing the recent Persian Gulf War from a cartographic standpoint is now possible. Unlike in previous wars, which established new technologies for postwar cartographic exploitation, the gulf war is unique in having presented a proving ground for electronic cartographic technology. An analysis is given of map coverage of the war by the media, especially magazines and newspapers, and from a military perspective. From a cartographic standpoint, the winners in the war include hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, geographic information systems (GIS), workstation-based image processing and cartographic map-production systems, and radar imaging from aircraft. More fully exploiting and building on the success of these technologies in peacetime seems to be a clear mandate for academic and professional cartography.