WIESBADEN, Germany - When auto mechanics are given a complex vehicle problem and need to know where to start, they reach for an automotive diagnostic tool. When engineers are given a complex, billion-dollar facility to construct, they reach for a different kind of tool.
Interactive Geographic Information Systems - better known as GIS - tools allow engineers to capture, store, analyze and present detailed geographic data quickly and accurately, saving military planners time, money and anxiety, said Thomas Rodehaver, a CAD/GIS administrator with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District.
The Europe District has repeatedly proven this through using GIS tools to plan area development activities to existing military sites in Germany as well as plan entire new military communities in Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.
"Data is collected by surveyors and physically digitized to create layers of information in the GIS program," he said. "We can collect information on existing vegetation, environmental conditions and even utilities. When we sandwich these layers together, they reveal landscape patterns that let planners see the most ideal areas for construction like flat ground, no bedrock and no environmental contamination."
Possible security violations related to force protection requirements can also be identified, and architects can use GIS' 3-D views, which can reveal installations' building facades, to design future facilities to match existing architectural features.
The District's GIS capabilities were best illustrated in 2007 when U.S. Army Garrison Baumholder called on USACE to support the Army's Integrated Strategic Sustainability Planning initiative, said Phil Cohen, the District's Planning Section chief.
Known as the "Home of Champions," the garrison is situated on the steep, forested hills of western Germany, deliberately planned that way in the 1930s when the German Army built the facilities.
"If you've ever been to Baumholder, you take one look at hilly area where Smith Barracks resides and realize planning construction is going to be problematic," he said. "So we decided the best approach was to use GIS to map existing conditions and develop a feasible construction plan."
GIS was first used to "district" the property - breaking the area up into identifiable sections based on existing area functions, such as residential, industrial and administrative. In specifying districts, certain data parameters are implied allowing Rodehaver to procure a series of GIS layers. One layer, for example, identified steep slopes, those greater than 15 percent, that would result in higher construction costs and potential unstable foundations. Another layer identified topography revealing bedrock locations that would also increase construction costs due to its durable nature.
"The whole layer sandwich offered a feasibility analysis that illustrated site constraints that could impact the project, the garrison, the post and the entire city," Cohen said.
And all of this work was done in one hour from an office cubical miles away - something that would normally take planners days or even weeks of on-site surveying, Rodehaver said.
Although a cost is associated with using the District's GIS services, the savings in labor cost and time offset the price tag and tend to save customers even more over the course of a project.
Once data is translated into a geo-reference format, it gives planners accurate locations for potential construction sites down to a few centimeters and allows them to identify, define and relocate structures in any way they deem fit.
"More importantly, GIS allows customers to see the "what ifs" in a matter of minutes," Rodehaver said.
These benefits have become especially important as the District hopes to begin site planning efforts for a new hospital in Kaiserslautern expected to eventually replace the aging Landstuhl Regional Hospital.
"This is a five-year, $1 billion project that would need close to 100 acres - a perfect project to showcase what we can do and how much time and money we can save with GIS," Cohen said.
If project funding is approved, District planners propose to map a series of buildability constraints for the entire region to identify areas with high (and low) levels of constructability. About 12 locations have been preliminarily identified as potential constructions sites. By using GIS, the pros, cons and restrictions attached to those sites, revealing a more accurate construction price tag, can be discovered and weighed by architects and engineers.
Beyond construction, the District's GIS capabilities also help garrisons survey and measure existing infrastructure as well as map updates on Army installations across the European theater to give directorates of public works a more accurate picture of the operations and maintenance (O&M) funds needed to manage and maintain their installations.
But GIS products are only as good as they way they're used, and in Europe, incorporating GIS into the construction process is at a slower pace in comparison to the district's U.S. counterparts, Rodehaver said.
"It would make sense that GIS would eventually integrate BIM [building information modeling], but the systems aren't there yet," he said. "As we work on incorporating BIM and LEED into the authorized construction processes with other countries, we hope to expand our GIS capabilities as well."
So far, two indefinite delivery teams are being created, and planners hope the location of GIS in the planning section to perform planning tasks and analysis will grow in the future to benefit Army garrisons and other Department of Defense customers across Europe.
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