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Geography professor explains battle's impact on soil quality
First major environmental damage began with World War I, still continues
Luke Anderson
Issue date: 3/2/09 Section: Campus News
Geography professor Joseph Hupy discussed how military operations have had a lasting impact on 20th century battlefields Wednesday afternoon at Sweetwater's Restaurant, 1104 W. Clairemont Ave.
Hupy's presentation, "Assessing the Impacts of War on the Contemporary Landscape," was part of the monthly Alumni Association's "Let's Do Lunch."
"If you study the impacts of warfare on the environment, you really have to understand the history of warfare," Hupy said. "To know history, you have to know geography and to know geography, you have to know history."
Hupy focused on the history of warfare, and two areas heavily bombarded during their respective conflicts: Verdun, France and Khe Sanh, Vietnam.
Hupy described five distinctive generations of warfare. Pre-generational included ancient armies, such as the Greeks and Romans. First generational warfare saw the expansion of line and column fighting. Second generational was epitomized by World War I; this is where the first major environmental damages occurred. Third generational warfare was World War II, which meant mobility and implementation of all military branches. Fourth generational has more of a network base, where the enemy wants to defeat the political base, not the army itself.
"This is an evolving form of insurgency," Hupy said. "Taking this all the way back to Vietnam, we were fighting third generational warfare, while the enemy was engaging in fourth generational warfare."
Hupy focused on Verdun because it was "the battle of attrition" of World War I. Throughout the battle, Hupy said there were 45 to 50 million artillery shells used, in an area that was only 10 km by 20 km in size.
After the war, areas of Verdun became deforested. Although it is fairly green today, Hupy says his concern lies in the soils.
"Soils are a great indicator of landscape stability," he said. "The thicker the soil is … the better and more stable your landscape."
Following the war, the size of the craters created areas of standing water and muck soils formed with no trees in the crater bottoms.
Hupy's presentation, "Assessing the Impacts of War on the Contemporary Landscape," was part of the monthly Alumni Association's "Let's Do Lunch."
"If you study the impacts of warfare on the environment, you really have to understand the history of warfare," Hupy said. "To know history, you have to know geography and to know geography, you have to know history."
Hupy focused on the history of warfare, and two areas heavily bombarded during their respective conflicts: Verdun, France and Khe Sanh, Vietnam.
Hupy described five distinctive generations of warfare. Pre-generational included ancient armies, such as the Greeks and Romans. First generational warfare saw the expansion of line and column fighting. Second generational was epitomized by World War I; this is where the first major environmental damages occurred. Third generational warfare was World War II, which meant mobility and implementation of all military branches. Fourth generational has more of a network base, where the enemy wants to defeat the political base, not the army itself.
"This is an evolving form of insurgency," Hupy said. "Taking this all the way back to Vietnam, we were fighting third generational warfare, while the enemy was engaging in fourth generational warfare."
Hupy focused on Verdun because it was "the battle of attrition" of World War I. Throughout the battle, Hupy said there were 45 to 50 million artillery shells used, in an area that was only 10 km by 20 km in size.
After the war, areas of Verdun became deforested. Although it is fairly green today, Hupy says his concern lies in the soils.
"Soils are a great indicator of landscape stability," he said. "The thicker the soil is … the better and more stable your landscape."
Following the war, the size of the craters created areas of standing water and muck soils formed with no trees in the crater bottoms.
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William Hupy
posted 3/03/09 @ 10:23 AM CST
This is an excellent article. It is concise yet conveyed all necessary information, but then, I may be biased, as the subject of the article is my son. (Continued…)
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