Diagnostic Tools and Reclamation Technologies for Mitigating Impacts of DoD/DOE Activities in Arid Areas

Abstract : Approximately 70 percent of all U.S. military training lands are located in arid and semi-arid areas. Training activities in such areas frequently adversely affect vegetation, damaging plants and reducing the resilience of vegetation to recover once disturbed. Fugitive dust resulting from a loss of vegetation creates additional problems for human health, increasing accidents due to decreased visibility, and increasing maintenance costs for roads, vehicles, and equipment. Diagnostic techniques are needed to identify thresholds of sustainable military use. Under conventional technologies to mitigate these impacts, it is estimated that up to 35 percent of revegetation projects in arid areas will fail due to unpredictable natural environmental conditions, such as drought, and reclamation techniques that were inadequate to restore vegetative cover in a timely and cost-effective manner. A cooperative effort among the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and selected university scientists was undertaken in 1999 to focus on developing new techniques for monitoring and mitigating military impacts in arid lands (SERDP Project No. CS-1131).