Military geography

Military geography is a sub-field of geography that is used by the military, as well as academics and politicians, to understand the geopolitical sphere through the military lens. To accomplish these ends, military geographers consider topics from geopolitics to physical locations’ influences on military operations and the cultural and economic impacts of a military presence. On a tactical level, a military geographer might put together the terrain and the drainage system below the surface, so a unit is not at a disadvantage if the enemy uses the drainage system to ambush it, especially in urban warfare. On a strategic level, an emerging field of strategic and military geography seeks to understand the changing human and biophysical environments that alter the security and military domains. Climate change, for example, is adding and multiplying the complexity of military strategy, planning and training. Emerging responsibilities for the military to be involved in: protection of civilian populations (Responsibility to protect), women and ethnic groups; provision of humanitarian aid and disaster response (HADR); new technology and domains of training and operations,such as in cybergeography, make military geography a dynamic frontier.

Military geography has a long and practical history. For example, Imperial Military Geography in 1938 shows how a colonial empire approach to military geography could describe the geographical setting of empire, the responsibilities and the resources that could be mobilised for national or imperial needs. Environmental determinism, regional geography, geographic information systems and geography more generally have all evolved and entwined over hundreds of years.

Russian colonel N. S. Olesik terms the field of analyzing the complex urban environment in particular “military geo-urbanistics.” In the open country, units only deal with terrain, weather, and the enemy. In urban warfare, the terrain is more complex, filled with many structures and transformations of the land by the inhabitants, which restrict visibility from the air and create obstacles to ground units. Spaces may be narrow, and convoys may be restricted to certain routes between buildings, where they face roadside bombs and ambushes.

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