Creating Sustainable and Climate Resilient Communities – Supporting Our Nation
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Description
The United States Army is one of the largest landowners in the United States, encompassing 79 installations that cover over 5 million acres. The Biden Administration and the Secretary of Defense recognize climate change as the most serious threat to both military readiness as well as being a good steward of the lands under their care. The goal is to create a digital platform for military installations that integrates and displays site, facility, and utility data from numerous disparate sources. The result is to facilitate climate resilience planning, siting of facilities and infrastructure, and decrease energy and water use to meet new federal climate change mandates and improve the quality of life for military personnel, their families, and civilian employees.
The Army Corps of Engineers is creating a digital planning platform (PLANNER) to facilitate siting of buildings and other facilities to be more sustainable, improve climate resilience, and integrate smart technologies to make Army installations "smart cities", as well as encompassing the surrounding communities. Our desire is to gain additional input and ideas from attendees to make PLANNER a more robust tool to improve the climate resilience of military bases, families, and communities.
Course expires 01/18/2026
Learning Objectives
Discover the Army's current state of development of digital planning tools and processes that can be applicable to present and future urban planning initiatives, regardless of scale.
Identify the specific capabilities of PLANNER that can analyze large disparate data sources, and produce courses of action for senior officials to make data-driven decisions that will raise the level of climate resilience within their communities.
Observe the actual demonstration of the capabilities of PLANNER to integrate multiple facility and installation data sources to create data-driven courses of action for senior leaders to make more informed decisions on resilience and sustainability at their installations.
Understand the Department of the Army's research and development of digital tools to create real-world solutions for more resilient communities, both inside and outside military installations.
This session was recorded live on March 9, 2023.
Mr. Covington has served in various positions as both a Contractor and a Department of the Army civilian providing Installation Planning, Regional Planning, and Command Planning. During these efforts, he was instrumental in the adaption of Form-Based Planning for the Army’s primary landholding command. He is currently supporting: Installations of the Future, Planning for Energy/Climate Change/Resiliency, and Plan Based Programming – each focus on making planning; more effective, more responsive, and more relevant.
Ed Gauvreau, FAIA, is Chief, Planning Branch, Installation Readiness Division, HQ US Army Corps of Engineers. He oversees the Corps’ work in master planning, facility requirements, and other areas totaling $200 million annually. Ed has over 39 years of federal service, 26 with the Corps of Engineers. He is the current chair of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Architecture Practice Community of Interest. Ed was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 2017, and is a recipient of the SAME Urbahn Medal for excellence in architecture.
Grace, former chair of AIA Project Delivery Knowledge Community, is an Owner’s advisor. As a senior project manager at CBRE, she sets out procurement strategies, project delivery blueprints, supports clients’ businesses and operational requirements. She provides customized services from project inception to completion that minimize risks optimizing project outcomes. She is responsible for timely reporting ensuring client goals are achieved. She orchestrates the integration of project delivery systems, multifaceted business functions, and directs project implementation. Her multi-market experiences foster innovation and drive efficiency. Her experience is complemented by a B.S. degree in Architecture, two M.S. degrees – in Construction Administration and in Sustainability Management – both from Columbia University. After working for global architectural firms, she transitioned into the Owner’s side. Her previous roles from “both sides of the fence”, being an Owner and a consultant, cultivated her talents at big picture ideas, executing details, and qualified her the perspectives to purvey strategic master planning. Her broad-based knowledge benefits real estate development, design, construction, capital facility programs, and sustainability management. Grace serves on the PDKC, Urban Land Institute, Association of Medical Facilities Professionals steering committees. She is an adjunct professor at Columbia University, School of Professional Studies, teaching graduate-level students.
Ms. Long is a Community Planner with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) where she influences change through leading the 'Installations of the Future' program, focuses on modernizing and transforming Army Installations.
Ms. Wolters is a Research Landscape Architect with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Environmental Laboratory, where she drives the modernization of planning processes for the Department of Defense through digital transformation to provide installation leaders and planners, and enterprise partners with the tools to make real-time holistic decision making for a stronger, more united force and community partner.