Military Geoscience: A Multifaceted Approach to the Study of Warfare

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vi

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2. Military Geoscience: A Multifaceted Discipline

   • Aldino Bondesan, Judy Ehlen

   Pages 1-15

3. Pre-twentieth Century

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

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   2. Visualizing the Impacts of Topography: A Geographic Perspective of the Battle of Marathon

      • Chris Fuhriman, Jason Ridgeway

      Pages 19-28

   3. Defending Britain’s Soft Underbelly: Invasion, Fortification and Geology Near Portsmouth, Hampshire

      • Judy Ehlen

      Pages 29-52

   4. Fortress Monte Baldo: A Military Landscape Between Nature and War

      • Francesco Premi

      Pages 53-68

4. World War

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 69-69

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   2. The Practice of Trench Warfare: Training Sites in the Aube Region of France (Champagne), 1914–1919

      • Jérôme Brenot, Yves Desfossés, Robin Perarnau, Marc Lozano, Alain Devos

      Pages 71-82

   3. A Digital and Archaeological Perspective of the World War One Veneto-Trentino Front Line Trench Systems in Northern Italy

      • Luigi Magnini, Giulia Rovera, Armando De Guio, Giovanni Azzalin

      Pages 83-106

   4. The Italian Corps of Engineers in World War I: Innovations in Mining and Tunnel Warfare

      • Paolo Macini, Paolo Sammuri

      Pages 107-123

   5. The World War I Tactical Maps of the Italian Army: Proposals for a Typological Classification, an Interpretation of Symbols and a Digital Analysis of the Cartographies in the Historical Archive of the Third Army

      • Elena Dai Prà, Nicola Gabellieri, Matteo Boschian Bailo

      Pages 125-143

   6. Geographical Representation of the Royal Italian Army War Sectors and Sites during the First World War

      • Paolo Plini, Sabina Di Franco, Rosamaria Salvatori

      Pages 145-163

   7. Italian Prisoners of War in South Africa During the Second World War: Circumstances and Contributions

      • H. A. P. Smit

      Pages 165-182

   8. The 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale, Colorado: The Origin of Mountain Alpine Warfare Testing and Training in the US

      • William W. Doe III, Michael R. Czaja

      Pages 183-194

   9. German Military Geography and Geology at the Eastern Front 1941–1945

      • Hermann Häusler

      Pages 195-226

   10. The Use of German Military Geology in the Adriatic Theatre 1943–1945

       • Hermann Häusler

       Pages 227-243

5. Twenty-First Century

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 245-245

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   2. Sustainability of US Army Agribusiness Development Team Efforts: A Decade in Afghanistan

      • Alexander K. Stewart

      Pages 247-266

   3. Contemporary Security Threats on the High Seas

      • Francis A. Galgano

      Pages 267-285

   4. The Geography of Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea

      • Mark Stephen Blaine

      Pages 287-303

This volume presents a selection of papers from the 13^th International Conference on Military Geosciences (ICMG), held 24-28 June 2019 in Padua, Italy. It covers a wide range of subjects within the confines of military geoscience written by scientists with a variety of different backgrounds from many countries throughout the world. Many of the papers focus on subjects related to Italy and World War I, but additional subject areas include international perspectives in the military geosciences, international security, geospatial intelligence and remote sensing, subterranean and underground warfare, analyses of historical battlefields and fortifications, and military archaeology. The book will be of interest to academics (e.g., military historians, military archaeologists, military geographers and geologists), applied geoscientists (e.g., engineering geologists and geologists working in other areas of applied geology), professional geoscientists, and those with a general interest in military geoscience and history. 

• Military geosciences
• Subterranean warfare
• Military mobility
• Post-conflict reconstruction
• Geospatial intelligence
• Trafficability
• Military archaeology
• Military cartography
• Historical Geography

“The number of chapters in the publication illustrates the breadth and depth of military geoscience, as well as the relevance of geoscience to past, present and future conflicts or military operations and missions. … This can also be an incentive for Slovenian researchers and the Slovenian Armed Forces to increase activities in the field of military geosciences, especially in view of the rich military and war history in the geographically and geologically diverse territory of Slovenia.” (Klemen Kocjančič, Contemporary Military Challenges, Vol. 24 (3), September, 2022)

• DISSGEA-Department of Historical and Geographical Sciences and the Antiquities, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

  Aldino Bondesan

• 3 Haytor Vale, Haytor, Newton Abbot, UK

  Judy Ehlen

Dr. Aldino Bondesan is an assistant professor at the Department of Historical and Geographical Sciences, and the Ancient World, University of Padua. where he teaches Environmental Geology, Physical Geography, Geomorphology, Geological Surveying and Landscape Analysis, among other subjects. Dr. Bondesan has developed expertise in Military Geography and Geology, and has also performed research on fluvial geomorphology, glaciology and glacial morphology in the Italian Alps and in polar region, desert geomorphology, geological mapping, karstology, geoarchaeology, geophysics and coastal dynamics. He is currently president of the Italian Society of Military Geography and Geology and a Research Fellow in the Department of Military Geography, Faculty of Military Science, University of Stellenbosch (South Africa).

 

Dr. Judy Ehlen has BA and MA degrees in Geology and a BA in German from the University of Oregon, an MA in History from George Mason University, and aPh.D. in Geography from the University of Birmingham (UK). Before retirement in 2005, she worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers for more than 30 years in research related to image analysis of the geologic properties of terrain with respect to military needs. Since retiring, her research has concentrated on military geoscience, particularly the analysis of how terrain affects the outcome of historical battles, editing and reviewing. 

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