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Geodesign is an urban planning framework which combines the traditionally separated tasks of landscape planning, site planning, and geographic analysis through automated software flows. Through the amalgamation of these elements, a user gains a fuller picture of the environment they are planning for and becomes better equipped to explain planning decisions. As planning processes become increasingly complex, geodesign software becomes necessary to successfully facilitate planning. Using the software product Engineer Site Identification for the Technical Environment (ENSITE) as an example, this article provides a framework for successful geodesign products made up of four aspects: rapid development; flexible software architecture; global data; team of subject matter experts.

To sustain itself as the world's premier land power, the U.S. Army needs the capability to support expeditionary forces by projecting a minimal basing footprint with reduced logistical burdens. Strategically sited contingency bases (CBs) allow the Army's expeditionary forces to rapidly respond throughout a joint area of operations. To help with this goal, the Army is funding work in the Engineer Site Identification for the Tactical Environment (ENSITE) program, which is dedicated to empowering military planners with the data and knowledge to site CB locations. ENSITE's core-software platform builds upon leading geospatial platforms already in use by the Army and is designed to offer an easy-to-use, customized set of workflows for CB planners. Within this platform are added software components (plug-ins) that add specific and powerful functionality and features for analyses, while minimizing the program's complexity to the end user. This report provides a snapshot of the ENSITE plug-in development process. Completed midway in the four-year ENSITE research effort, this report provides an overview of the initial process of developing 10 plug-ins and reflects on the way forward for the plug-in development process.

Building on previous studies of urban growth and population effects on U.S. military installations and training activities (e.g., Wilhoit et al. 2016), this report describes methodology and applies a methodology for quantifying urban development and encroachment impacts. The authors propose a distance-weighted assessment of population growth around the training areas to include both current population and projected urban growth. The results of this study demonstrate improvement over the previous methodology.