The 2019 SERDP & ESTCP symposium is rapidly approaching! This year the Resource Conservation and Resiliency (RCR) program area announces it will feature three technical sessions and two short courses. These events aim to communicate findings and enhance DoD mission effectiveness though improved management of DoD’s natural and built infrastructure.

The technical sessions possess three themes, improved management of threatened, endangered, at risk, and invasive species, ecosystem dynamics, and natural and built infrastructure. The first technical session will review research efforts associated with the management of infrastructure critical for the maintenance and improvement of DoD capabilities. This session will take place on Tuesday, December 3^rd from 1:45 to 5:00 PM. With regard to the second session, the DoD manages more than 25 million acres of lands, representing a wide array of natural ecosystems and supporting a high number of important species. This session will take place on Wednesday, December 4^th from 8:30 to 11:45 AM and will report on the research and progress that has been accomplished to better understand the condition of these important species on DoD lands. Finally, the third technical session examines research efforts currently underway to understand the value of the ecosystem service benefits the nation and the DoD accrue from the natural infrastructure. This session will take place on Wednesday, December 4^th from 1:45 to 5:00 PM.

In addition to the technical sessions, two short courses will be conducted. The first provides an update to planning infrastructure resilience in the face of climate change while the second provides a primer on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in resource conservation. More specifically, the infrastructure resilience short course updates participants on the tools available for resilient infrastructure planning with a particular focus on DoD installation planning practitioners at coastal installations. The UAV utilization short course provides insight into the use of UAVs for natural resource management on DoD lands with topics discussed to include current DoD use policies, approval processes, training requirements, and example resource management applications. The infrastructure resilience planning update short course will take place on Thursday, December 5^th from 8:30 - 10:00 AM and the UAV utilization in resource conservation short course will take place on Thursday, December 5^th from 10:15 to 11:45 AM.

RCR invites you to join us at the symposium in December. For more information and to register please visit the symposium website.