Integrating Archaeological Modeling in DoD Cultural Resource Compliance

• Main Authors: Green, Paul, Altschul, Jeffrey, Newman, Jay, Heilen, Michael, Cushman, David, Van West, Carla, Stanley, Mark, Rush, Laurie, Robertson, Sheri, Hirschi, Jaynie
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Subjects: Administration and Management; ARCHAEOLOGICAL MODELING; ARCHEOLOGY; COST ANALYSIS; CRM(CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT); CULTURAL RESOURCE COMPLIANCE; CULTURAL RESOURCES; DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE; DOD(DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE); FIELD TESTS; Humanities and History; INTEGRATION; LEGISLATION; LESSONS LEARNED; Logistics, Military Facilities and Supplies; MILITARY FACILITIES; NEPA(NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT); NHPA(NATIONAL HISTORIC PRESERVATION ACT); PA(PROGRAMMATIC AGREEMENTS); PREDICTIONS; RESOURCE MANAGEMENT; SAMPLING; SECTION 106 COMPLIANCE

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is legally required to inventory and evaluate archaeological sites, Native American resources, and other cultural assets on lands it administers. To date, the agency has inventoried less than 40% of its holdings and has another 13.4 million acres to inventory. More than 110,000 sites are recorded, of which more than 20,000 are listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Many other sites lack determinations of eligibility and must be treated as if they are eligible until their status is confirmed. DoD must take into account the effects of military actions on thousands of potential historic properties on lands that have not been inventoried and resources that have not been evaluated, so refined technologies are needed to streamline the evaluation process. One particularly effective technology that can be adapted to reduce cost and effort associated with cultural resource management (CRM) requirements is archaeological predictive modeling. To be effective tools for cultural resource management, archaeological predictive models must be operationalized in a database using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, refined as new data become available, statistically validated to demonstrate their accuracy, and incorporated into programmatic agreements (PAs) that will streamline compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA, Section 106) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Over the last 30 years, a number of DoD installations, especially those with large land holdings, have developed and used predictive models as planning tools. Few installations, however, have operationalized, refined, and validated their predictive models, and none have incorporated their models into PAs.