Assessment and Quantification of Cumulative Impacts of Training and Land Management Practices on Military Installations
Abstract
Military vehicle maneuvers remove vegetation and increase the potential for soil erosion. Quantifying the vegetation removed during military maneuvers is needed to assist land managers in maintaining the environmental integrity of the training area. A terrain-vehicle impact model was used to predict terrain impacts (disturbed width and impact severity), based on vehicle properties, operating characteristics and soil strength properties. The cumulative impact width (CIW), a product of the disturbed width and impact severity, is the width of vegetation removed resulting from a passing wheeled or tracked vehicle. The vegetation removed is a direct indicator of increased soil erosion from the training area. By tracking military vehicles during maneuvers, the vehicle movement pattern and the resulting vegetation removed can be determined. The approach was used to determine the vegetation removed during an eight-wheeled Stryker military maneuver at Pohakuloa Training Area in Hawaii. A Stryker reconnaissance platoon (3 vehicles) of the 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Davison was tracked during an off-road proofing mission on the Keamuku parcel using GPS-based tracking systems to determine vehicle movement patterns and estimate soil loss impacts. Total vegetation removed was estimated from the vehicle operating characteristics (velocity and turning radius) determined from the GPS data. An average of 1,251 square meters of vegetation removed per vehicle during the proofing maneuver was estimated. An average of 9.1 km of off-road travel distance was measured per vehicle, with an average speed of 3.69 m/s. Off-road travel accounted for less than 10 percent of the total distance travelled. Spiral impacts were conducted to evaluate the influence of vehicle velocity and turning radius on terrain impact. Sharper turns and higher speeds produced more vegetation removed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 19, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA546460
Entities
People
- Paul Ayers
Organizations
- University of Tennessee system