A :”sand table” – as opposed to a sandbox which is elevated,but whose purpose is primarily play – is a flexible modeling area used for planning, briefing, annd the visualization of elevation data.

See:Wikipedia entry for “Sand Table:

This excellent page – “Sand Table Showroom,” which was created by the NWCG Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program, which is, in turn, a program of the National Wildlife Coordinating Group.   ((The Wild Fire Leadership Development Program which is described as follows on the “Program Page” under the heading “Program Components”:

This program is sponsored by the participating agencies of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. The program components were developed by adapting “best practices” from a number of organizations that operate in high tempo work environments including the U.S. Marine Corps University; the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management at the University of Pennsylvania; the U.S. Air Force Human Factors Research Lab; the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command; the N.A.S.A. Astronaut Development Center; the National Fire Academy; and various commercial aviation Crew Resource Management programs.

I don’t know if this is an unnecessarily unwieldy bureaucratic setup – but if they’re cooperating across agency lines, creating curricula, standards and providing training, all in all, that’s a good thing.

We hope to return to this subject – the structure and funding and control of the fire and other responder services in the United States  – and to compare it to other countries, particularly Germany – our back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that Germany has 5-6 tims the number of fire fighters per capita as does the United States.))

For the moment, let’s tour the “Sand Table Showroom.”

The sand tables shown here are primarily used as a platform for delivering Tactical Decision Games. It is important to remember that sand tables can also be used to present briefings, conduct AARs, and teach topography map interpretation. You can build a table as elaborate as a fine piece of furniture or as basic as a hole in the ground filled with sand. All serve the same purpose. Keep it simple and build the table that best suits your facilitation needs. Basic considerations are: mobility requirements, exposure to weather, storage needs, and scale of landscape to be shown. Rule of thumb – the larger the table, the more terrain that can be shown, but the less mobile the table.

Other Options

Special options can increase the utility of your sand table.

Alternate design 1