Environmental Disasters Data Management Workshop Report

The Environmental Disasters Data Management (EDDM) project seeks to foster communication between collectors, managers, and users of data within the scientific research community, industry, NGOs, and government agencies, with a goal to identify and establish best practices for orderly collection, storage, and retrieval. The Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) is assisting NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (ORR) with this effort. The objectives of the EDDM project are to: Engage the community of data users, data managers, and data collectors to foster a culture of applying consistent terms and concepts, data flow, and quality assurance and control; Provide oversight in the establishment and integration of foundational, baseline data collected prior to an environmental event, based on user requirements; Provide best‐practice guidance for data and metadata management; Suggest infrastructure design elements to facilitate quick and efficient search, discovery, and retrieval of data; Define the characteristics of a “gold standard” data management plan for appropriate data sampling, formatting, reliability, and retrievability; and Deliver workshop conclusions to end users in order to promote the use of the protocols, practices, or recommendations identified by participants

FM 34-54, Technical Intelligence, 30 January 1998

This manual defines and describes the technical intelligence mission. It names the key technical intelligence organizations involved at the national level and their interrelationships and responsibilities. The manual describes in detail the technical intelligence organizations and operations in a US command in the field. It discusses at length the responsibilities on the key staff sections in the command. It has extensive appendices explaining forms and procedures used by forces in the field. It has an excellent list of acronyms and glossary. Comment by the depositor A clear understanding of the evolution of technical intelligence may not be needed by the intended audience of this manual, and as far as I know, no comprehensive history exists. However, supposed historical facts included in an official manual ought to be true. This manual fails in that respect. For example, this paragraph on Page 1-5 is utter nonsense: Following the Korean War, the United States did not disband its TECHINT capability completely, as had been done at the conclusion of all previous hostilities. But neither did we maintain it at its wartime level. Three small TECHINT detachments remained in place at the Army\u27s research and development centers. By 1962 two of the detachments merged to form the Army\u27s Foreign Science and Technology Center. The third detachment established the Missile Intelligence Agency at Redstone Arsenal. The Surgeon General also operated a Medical Intelligence Center at Fort Detrick, MD. At the end of World War II, technical intelligence staffs remained in the offices of the heads of the seven Army Technical Services. Between then and the creation of the Army Foreign Science and Technical Center, many of those staffs were converted into special purpose intelligence agencies as is documented by DA General Orders. The first such agency, the Signal Corps Intelligence Agency was established at Washington, DC, according to Sec. IV, DA GO 39, 18 Aug 49, before the beginning of the Korean War. Paragraph VIII of DA GO 57, 1962, established the Army Foreign Science and Technology Center and transferred the functions, personnel, records, and equipment of the Chemical Corps, Ordnance Corps, Signal Corps, Transportation Corps, and Quartermaster intelligence agencies to it. In addition Corps of Engineer technical intelligence activities which had been housed in the Army Map Service were transferred to it. The intelligence section in the office of the commanding general of the Army Missile Command was not recognized as an official intelligence production agency until much later in the 1960s. The Medical Information and Intelligence Agency, which was not at Ft Detrick, was not affected by the reorganization of the Army intelligence activities outlined in Department of the Army Reorganization Planning Directive 381-2, 18 May 1962, which is available in the UNL Digital Commons at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usarmyresearch/169/ In fact, the intelligence organization which was formed in the Office of the Surgeon General went through a complicated series of reorganizations before it became the National Center for Medical Intelligence at Ft Detrick. Robert L Bolin, Associate Professor Emeritus, UNL Librarie

Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms

The Joint Publication 1-02, Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms sets forth standard US military and associated terminology to encompass the joint activity of the Armed Forces of the United States. These military and associated terms, together with their definitions, constitute approved Department of Defense (DOD) terminology for general use by all DOD components

Automated Find Fix and Track with a Medium Altitude Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft

A limitation in RPA ISR operations is loss of target track if the command link is severed. For an RPA to effectively execute the ISR mission without a command link, it needs the capability to F2T targets autonomously. Automated Find Fix and Track (AFFTRAC) was developed to help solve this problem by demonstrating a proof of concept tactical autopilot. Monocular stereo vision was used to process sequential images acquired during orbit to produce a partial structural point cloud of the original structure. This partial structural point cloud was then exploited to create a holding area density for the aircraft to stay within. A simple greedy algorithm exploited this holding area density to produce aircraft turn commands to approximate tactical ISR holding. The result was that imagery from existing MQ-9 sensors was used to provide command guidance to autonomously to maintain line of sight to a target. Overall, AFFTRAC is a promising initial framework for a tactical autopilot, but additional development is needed to mature component algorithms

Keeping Research Data Safe 2: Final Report

The first Keeping Research Data Safe study funded by JISC made a major contribution to understanding of long-term preservation costs for research data by developing a cost model and indentifying cost variables for preserving research data in UK universities (Beagrie et al, 2008). However it was completed over a very constrained timescale of four months with little opportunity to follow up other major issues or sources of preservation cost information it identified. It noted that digital preservation costs are notoriously difficult to address in part because of the absence of good case studies and longitudinal information for digital preservation costs or cost variables. In January 2009 JISC issued an ITT for a study on the identification of long-lived digital datasets for the purposes of cost analysis. The aim of this work was to provide a larger body of material and evidence against which existing and future data preservation cost modelling exercises could be tested and validated. The proposal for the KRDS2 study was submitted in response by a consortium consisting of 4 partners involved in the original Keeping Research Data Safe study (Universities of Cambridge and Southampton, Charles Beagrie Ltd, and OCLC Research) and 4 new partners with significant data collections and interests in preservation costs (Archaeology Data Service, University of London Computer Centre, University of Oxford, and the UK Data Archive). A range of supplementary materials in support of this main report have been made available on the KRDS2 project website at http://www.beagrie.com/jisc.php. That website will be maintained and continuously updated with future work as a resource for KRDS users

Third international conference on irrigation and drainage

Presented during the Third international conference on irrigation and drainage held March 30 - April 2, 2005 in San Diego, California. The theme of the conference was Water district management and governance.Includes bibliographical references.Sponsored by USCID; co-sponsored by Association of California Water Agencies and International Network for Participatory Irrigation Management.The changing face of western irrigated agriculture: structure, water management, and policy implications -- Proven institutional, financing and pricing principles for rural water services -- Involving stakeholders in irrigation and drainage district decisions: who, what, when, where, why, how -- Implementing district level irrigation water management with stakeholder participation -- WUA development and strengthening in the Kyrgyz Republic -- Variations in irrigation district voting and election procedures -- Water Users Association governance in developing countries: fragility and function -- Viet Nam: creating conditions for improved irrigation service delivery -- the case of the Phuoc Hoa Water Resources Project -- Technical and institutional support for water management in Albanian irrigation -- Reconciling traditional irrigation management with development of modern irrigation systems: the challenge for Afghanistan -- Field testing of SacMan Automated Canal Control System -- An infrastructure management system for enhanced irrigation district planning -- NCWCD efforts toward improving on-farm water management -- A web-based irrigation water use tracking system -- Using GIS to monitor water use compliance -- Development of a water management system to improve management and scheduling of water orders in Imperial Irrigation District -- Radar water-level measurement for open channels -- Non-standard structure flow measurement evaluation using the flow rate indexing procedure - QIP -- A GIS-based irrigation evaluation strategy for a rice production region -- Total Channel Control™ - an important role in identifying losses -- Commencing the modernization project of the Gila Gravity Main Canal -- Obtaining gains in efficiency when water is free -- A qualitative approach to study water markets in Pakistan -- Local groundwater management districts and Kansas state agencies share authority and responsibility for transition to long term management of the High Plains Aquifer -- Water user management and financing of irrigation facilities through use of improvement districts -- Irrigation management transfer to water user organizations in Turkey -- Farm size, irrigation practices, and on-farm irrigation efficiency in New Mexico's Elephant Butte Irrigation District -- The ITRC Rapid Appraisal Process (RAP) for irrigation districts -- Relationships between seepage loss rates and canal condition parameters for the Rapid Assessment Tool (RAT) -- Zarafshan Water District Improvement Project in Uzbekistan -- Technological modernization in irrigated agriculture: factors for sustainability in developing countries -- Reliability criteria for re-engineering of large-scale pressurized irrigation systems -- Upgrading existing databases: recommendations for irrigation districts -- Groundwater use in irrigated agriculture in Amudarya River basin in socio-economic dimensions -- Regional ET estimation from satellites