TERRAIN ANALYSIS OF BORDER COMMUNITIES FOR MILITARY OPERATIONS IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Insurgency in Nigeria is becoming an order of day, especially in the north-east due to the presence of Boko-haram, clearance operations by Nigeria Army has made some insurgent escape into neighboring communities feigned as herdsmen terrorizing Ukwu, Kwande, Logo, Katsina alah and Guma, a communities that border Nassarawa and Taraba in Benue sate. Although the troop is working hard to contain insurgency in the affected areas, there is still a lot to be done especially in the use of spatial terrain analysis for counter terrorism. The study involves the terrain analysis of border communities for military operations in Benue State. Specifically, it analyzed the surface model of the study area, determine the suitable site for locating forward observation base (FOB); and determine the concealment ability of the terrain for locating insurgent enclave. These will provide for the decision makers and the commanders (strategic and tactical level) with a visually and dynamic information about the terrain they will operate. The primary data is mainly field observation acquired during recce as a troop commander. The secondary data include Landsat images of the border communities in Benue state, administrative map, SRTM image of the border communities in Benue State, geology map and military material area gathered from relevant agencies. Surface model of the study area was analyzed using SRTM to generate slope, elevation, and 3D visual representation, for selection of suitable site for forward observation base (FOB) 6 criteria were adopted (road, rivers, slope, elevation, builtup and geology of the area) using GIS ,which has large ability to manage input data ,in addition analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method was used to derive the relative weightings for each criterion using pair-wise comparison. To obtain suitability index for FOB site, a weighted overlay operation was used, all was carried out in Arcgis environment. The study also carried out supervised classification of the study area in ENVI 5.1 into different land use to determine the concealment ability of the terrain for locating insurgent enclave. It was revealed that the technique has great capabilities of terrain analysis as features which are deemed humanly impossible to assess are viewed as if one is at the scene which may enhance quick analysis on military planning and deployments. Keywords: Terrain, GIS, DEM, FOB, AHP, Concealment, Weighted overlay.