Military Training Grounds Research Articles

Discussion on ‘Towards the prediction of subsidence risk upon the chalk outcrop’ by C. N. Edmonds

E. J. Wilson write: Figure 1 of Edmonds' paper suggests a geographical distribution of solution features which is highly distinctive yet apparently defies geological or climatological explanation. One is reluctant to accept such distribution as a starting point for the analysis of a problem, unless either it can be explained, or it can be shown that it is not due to any other spurious factor. It is immediately obvious that the lowest density of solution features recorded is for Salisbury Plain, a large proportion of which, as a military training ground, has a land use which would be expected to have a very low sensitivity to solution features. It is also obvious that most areas of high density lie within the Home Counties. This suggests the hypothesis that solution features are more likely to be discovered, and hence to become the subject of available data, in more highly-developed areas. To put this hypothesis to the test, a comparison was made between population density as shown in the Ordnance Survey Atlas of Great Britain , and the density of solution features as shown by Edmonds. A direct and reliable comparison would be difficult, however, without much more detailed analysis, since there is considerable overlap between areas from the two sources. Furthermore, there are many small areas of high population density, but these are mostly concentrated in valley bottoms, which Edmonds' Fig. 2 shows are not a preferred location for solution features; therefore they have been ignored on the basis that they would

ON THE CHANGEOVER OF FORMER MILITARY BASES TO INDUSTRIAL SITES IN THE KANTO DISTRICT

In Japan where the capitalist system developed in support of the military econmy, the principle of military priority was also applied to the use of land, and so lands suitable for the construction of factories were often removed from private use and used for military purposes. With the end of World War II, the large military establishments were released for public use, and there has been a tendency for these sites to be utilized for such uses as the building of factories. In Japan the former military bases have come to be used, as the property of the national government, bor contributing to the economic development in the post-War period. In the Kanto District, there were about 1, 100 military establishments accounting for about 430km2. Of this area, today 44% is used as farmlands, 30% for public establishments or services, 14% for American military uses, 8% for use of the Japanese Defense Agency and the remaining 4% for factory sites. There were 38 military airbases for the defense of the capital area within 20-60 km of Tokyo, and if the former military training grounds are also included, then these former establishments comprise a very large and flat area well-suited for the establishment of large-scale factories and industrial tracts. Therefore :since 1950, there has been an increasing tendency for just such developments. Also the former military bases which had been converted into farmlands are now being changed over into factory sites, and today 33% of these farmlands are designated as suitable sites for factories.