BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//pretalx//pretalx.com//spathum24//speaker//ZZGKTX BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:CET BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20001029T040000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=10 TZNAME:CET TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20000326T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:CEST TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:pretalx-spathum24-AZ87P9@pretalx.com DTSTART;TZID=CET:20240926T143000 DTEND;TZID=CET:20240926T150000 DESCRIPTION:This paper reports on the first step towards developing a GIS-b ased methodology for analysing military operational plans from the Cold Wa r. During the Cold War\, the military of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact car ried out a comprehensive military planning for the potential military conf rontation between the two alliances. \n\nMilitary planning documents is co mplicated historical source due to combination of both text\, diagrams and cartographic representations used to convey the complex spatial relations hip between the operational environment\, the objective (intentions) of ow n forces and information about the capability and deployment of own and en emy forces. An important component of the plan complexes are the cartograp hic representations of the operational plan\, typically drawn directly on topographic maps or on different types of overlays. In the NATO planning s ystem\, these cartographic representations are supplementary to text docum ents\, while in the Soviet / Warsaw Pact system\, the map is the central p lanning document with the text and diagram being second. \n\nHowever\, the se maps are difficult to analyse due to a number of reasons. First\, the n umber of maps as well as the amount of information on the maps makes it di fficult to analyse the plan. In many cases\, information is distributed on several maps at different scales covering vast geographic area include a spatio-temporal dynamics. Second\, some difficulties are related to the sp ecific cartographic technique used by Cold War militaries. Maps prepared i n relation to NATO operational planning are often made on overlays\, which needs to be viewed on top of a topographic map in order to provide a spat ial reference. Such topographic maps for reference are typically not avail able at the reading room at the archive. Maps made by the Warsaw Pact armi es are typically drawn directly on composite topographic map sheets\, whic h cover the entire operational area. Depending on unite size and reference scale\, such an operational area can be as much as whole of Western Europ e. This means that the maps can be as lager as up to almost 18 square mete rs\, which is almost impossible to view physically in detail. The physical size also means that digitization is difficult and that the output often comes as several parts\, which is difficult to read without further proces sing. The complicated nature of the source material are probably also one of the reason behind the limited application of the cartographic content o f the plans in Cold War research. Current research often ignores the spati al component of the plans in favour of the text\, thus reducing the cartog raphic representation and spatial diagrams to illustrations.\n\nBased on c omprehensive archives from the Danish military for the NATO commands COMLA NDZEALAND and COMLANDJUT as well as the Polish General Staff during the Co ld War\, we propose the first steps towards a GIS-based methodology for an alysing the history of cartography of Cold War operational planning. The p roposed method consists of two parts. \nFirst\, we aim to develop standard protocols for the georeferecing of plans from NATO as well as Warsaw Pact . For NATO plans\, we propose to use the UTM-grid and coordinates as the m ain geographic reference and persistent geographic features from a referen ce maps as secondary in cases\, where it is not possible to use the UTM gr id or coordinates. For Warsaw Pact plans\, we use the grid and coordinates related to the Soviet SK42 system and persistent geographic features as s econdary. \nSecond\, we aim to develop a GIS-ontology\, which can accommod ate the cartographic content of the plans within the standard geometry in vector-GIS. This is not a simple task\, because the Cold War plans in most cases were drawn by hand applying different symbols and colours to show t he content of the plan visually on a paper map. In some cases\, such as wi th deployment areas\, these are represented as area\, which can easily bee n digitized as polygons in GIS. However\, in other cases large arrows are drawn on the map to show axis of advance. These could be digitized as eith er a line or a polygon. In addition to these two\, examples additional com plexity can be added in relation to time and scale of the different plans\ , as well as the need for combining information from different maps within the operational plan complexes. \n\nDespite these methodological difficul ties\, our results from our initial development has shown\, that such GIS- data and visualizations can add significantly analytical power to the anal ysis of the Cold War operational plans. In addition\, digital vector layer s from the historical Cold War operational plans could also provide the so urce basis for a new historical geography of Cold War operational planning . DTSTAMP:20260508T153444Z LOCATION:MG1/02.05 SUMMARY:Towards a spatial history of Cold War operational planning - Stig R oar Svenningsen URL:https://pretalx.com/spathum24/talk/AZ87P9/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR