Customer Stories

CHALLENGE Compounding the encroachment issue is the fact that approximately 92 percent of the 160-sq-km (61-sq-mi) training area has been designated a flora-fauna and bird habitat protection area under the European Union's directive known as Natura 2000 FFH. Together, the encroachment and designation have produced an operational and environmental conundrum for USAREUR— how to balance the military's training needs with an elevated responsibility to protect threatened species and habitats. To resolve this challenge, the JMRC launched a first-of-its- kind project to bring the Blackthorn under control, while staying true to the protected nature of the site. Using a combination of high-resolution 3D Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data, satellite and aerial imagery and Trimble ® eCognition ® image analysis technology, the JMRC was able to not only identify and map the Blackthorn's movements, it also gathered the needed intelligence to develop strategies to proactively manage the invasive bush. Blackthorn grows long, spreading roots that send up shoots. Left unchecked, those shoots can quickly become healthy, hearty trees and a sizeable problem for the military, both physically and financially. At the HTA, the Blackthorn's encroachment on its open space had become so significant that USAREUR had to activate a plan in 2010 to resolve the problem. To do that successfully, it had to understand the bush—where it had taken root, its growth pattern and its extent. Since the expanse of the HTA and its several protected-status zones made it unfeasible to physically walk the ground to acquire that inventory, the Center's leadership needed a more viable method to size up the Blackthorn. To both assess the Blackthorn's present extent and its growth over time, the JMRC needed to have geospatial imagery that would provide vegetation-height detail and image analysis technology that could directly identify Blackthorn within a sizeable heterogeneous landscape and map its encroachment patterns and extent. As they aimed to map the bush's growth over time, the land classification solution also needed to be able to sufficiently handle the complexities of comparing and classifying spatial imagery with different resolutions and accuracies. TRANSFORMING THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS overview One of the toughest challenges the leadership at the U.S. Army Europe's Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) in Germany has faced hasn't had anything to do with training its troops. The problem, instead, has stemmed from the advancement of a hearty, thorny bush called Blackthorn, which has reduced available training space and made it difficult for soldiers to maneuver at its Hohenfels Training Area (HTA). With the classification maps, the JMRC leadership have begun eradication plans. To date, approximately 200 hectares of Blackthorn have been treated. Location Bavaria, Germany

• Cover