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Bringing the information together

  • Published
  • By Spc. Scott Davis
  • Combined Joint Task Force - 101
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan --  The Provincial Reconstruction Team in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, has developed a method that will ease the process of construction planning throughout Regional Command-East.

It's called district mapping. All construction plans are plotted onto a map that includes plans that have been completed, are being completed and that are scheduled to begin. Once step is done, the map is laid over a map with the existing infrastructures in the district.

The Nangarhar PRT, along with the 13 other provinces throughout Regional Command-East, are now focusing on mapping all of their districts.

Maj. Robert Minton and Capt. Tim O'Donnel, both civil affairs team leaders for the Nangarhar PRT, were among the three members that developed the methodology of District Mapping.

One of their main goals in developing this process was to identify gaps in development, according to Capt. Oliver Karp, a native of New York City, Ny., and the civil information manager for RC-East.

"What it has done for us already is, it helps us when we go out to districts, we don't get bombarded with the same old requests for seemingly unimportant things as much," said O'Donnel, a Linwood, Pa. native.

There have already been two instances where projects would have overlapped each other if it wasn't for these maps, said Minton, a native of Las Vegas, Nv.

Before district mapping, construction efforts were slower and at times, overlapped each other. This wasted time and effort, caused useless spending of money funded by foreign nations, and made long-term construction plans impossible.

Karp gave an example of obstacles the PRTs were faced with before district mapping.

"For instance, we have a plan called Nangarhar Incorporated," said Karp. "We knew where we wanted to be, as far as goals go, but without all of the information we didn't know where would stood. We didn't know what was required of us or what our baseline for this plan was."

Once the mapping process is complete, the map that is produced will aid all of RC-East, maximizing their efforts and increasing communication between PRTs, district governors and non-government organizations.

"The main thing that's going to save us money is getting the district authorities to realize the importance of letting us know exactly who all the 'players' are in their area," said Minton. "I would feel comfortable with saying its going to end up saving us millions in the long run."