Military Aspects of Terrain

Find Key Terrain

The Key Terrain layer package is used to mark up the map with key terrain features. These are features, either man-made or natural, that may affect friendly or hostile operations. In this exercise you will use ArcMap to identify and add Key Terrain areas to a map. Key Terrain change based on an operation's objectives and the capabilities of the unit carrying out the operation.

Using tools to find terrain features

Each time you identify Key Terrain, the method you use will be a little different. This exercise is meant to be a roadmap showing how you would go about setting up a map, adding layers, doing analysis, and finally marking Key Terrain features on the map.

  1. Open ArcMap.
  2. Click Geoprocessing > Geoprocessing Options on the ArcMap main menu. In the General area, check the Overwrite the outputs of geoprocessing operations check box, then click OK. The next time you run any geoprocessing tool, when the output of the tool already exists, the tool will overwrite the existing data with the new output data. This allows the tool layer to direct the output of the model to the results feature class shown on the map.
  3. Change your environment settings:
    1. In the ArcMap main menu, click Geoprocessing > Environments.
    2. In the Environment Settings dialog box, click the Workspace drop-down arrow.
    3. Click the Browse button next to the Current Workspace text box.
    4. In the Current Workspace dialog box, browse to the folder to which you extracted the template then inside that folder, navigate to the Maps folder. Click default.gdb, then click OK.
    5. Do the same for the Scratch Workspace setting (like: template location\Military Aspects of Terrain Template\Maps\Toolboxes\scratch\scratch.gdb).
    6. Click OK.
  4. Select File > Save As.

    The Save As window appears.

  5. Browse to your local workspace or operations workspace.
  6. Type a new name in File name.

    Since these will be key terrain features for a specific operation you should name the MXD with an operation name or date and include 'key terrain'. For example: 12JUN2016_KeyTerrain.mxd

  7. Click Save.
  8. Next open Windows Explorer and navigate to template location\Maps\Packages.
  9. Drag Key Terrain Features.lpk into ArcMap.

    The Key Terrain layer package will be unpacked into ArcMap. It also starts an edit session, which you will stop for now. On the Editor toolbar select Stop Editing from the dropdown menu.

  10. Use the Add Basemap drop down to add a basemap to the background.
  11. Next use the pan and zoom tools to move to your area of interest. At this time it would be a good idea to make a bookmark of your area of interest.
  12. From Server User connection add the LinesOfCommunication and Obstacles services you created in Publish Obstacles & Lines of Communication.
  13. Use the Find Highest Points/Lowest Points with the tools in the Observation and Fields of Fire toolset.
  14. At this time you would add other feature or raster datasets that aid in identifying key terrain features. These may be other layer packages from the portal identifying current Fires deployments or a map service showing current ISR operations.
  15. Click Save to save your map.

Adding features with the Key Terrain feature template

Now that you have some additional terrain elements added to the map you can start looking at them together and marking them using the included Key Terrain feature templates.

  1. Right-click the Key Terrain layer and click Edit Features > Start Editing.

    The Create Features window will appear with a list of all feature templates that can be used.

  2. Select the Key Terrain feature template in the Create Features window.
  3. Circle the key features on the map. The default tool is the circle tool, click on the map to define the center of a circle and click again to specify the circle's radius.
  4. Use the Attributes window to add UniqueDesignation (an ID or name) and AdditionalInformation for each feature.
  5. You also have feature templates for adding Defensible Terrain and Engagement Areas to the map. Attributes of the features are added the same way using the Attributes window.
  6. Select Save Edits on the Editor toolbar's drop-down menu.
  7. Select Stop Editing on the Editor toolbar's drop-down menu.
  8. Now that you have created Key Terrain features you can share them by creating a layer package and posting it to a local Portal for ArcGIS or sharing to a file service.
    1. Right-click the Key Terrain layer and select Create Layer Package.
    2. Select Save package to file or choose Upload package to my ArcGIS Online account if you are connected to local Portal for ArcGIS.
    3. Click Analyze to check the layer's readiness to publish. The analysis results show in the Prepare window in ArcMap. Any Errors must be resolved before you publish and Warnings should be reviewed. You can continue if there are no Errors.
    4. Click Share.
  9. Click Save to save your map.
  10. Close ArcMap.

In this exercise you used map service layers and geoprocessing tools to identify key terrain in an operational area. Then you packaged the key terrain features for sharing.

For further information on processes used in the exercise:

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