GPS World

Tag: Hurricane Harvey

  • The story of GIS at DHS: From Manhattan to Katrina

    Part 1

    In a rare historic moment, Congress understood geospatial technology’s important role would be key to support the new Department of Homeland Security.

    Written by Nate Smith; edited and co-written by William Tewelow, GISP

    If it doesn’t kill you it makes you stronger, but therein is the rub: You first have to avoid dying. Nothing sharpens the mind like trying to survive.

    On Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, 2001, the United States suffered a near mortal wound. In order to recover, there was no margin for error. Surviving depended upon getting it right. Failing to “connect the dots” again could prove fatal.

    The cause, in large part, were organizational silos in the intelligence and security agencies and no structure upon which intelligence data could be shared across the silos. With terminal lucidity at failure’s dire consequences, in a rare historic moment, Congress, seldom praised for innovative thinking, understood geospatial technology’s important role and would be key for supporting the agency’s mission.

    Click for an overview presentation on the GMO. (Image: DHS)
    Click for an overview presentation on the GMO. (Image: DHS)

    The government had to be restructured and given new tools and technologies to ensure our safety. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was the centerpiece of this effort bringing a number of established security focused organizations under its umbrella.

    The creation of DHS was an unprecedented task in the modern era. Many of Congress’ recommendations were codified in the founding of the Geospatial Management Office (GMO) established within DHS.

    Connecting the Geospatial Dots. The GMO’s mission was to create community, infrastructure, and the sharing of data and ideas ensuring future dots get connected to anticipate trends and stay ahead of adversaries avoiding another shock to our nation.

    The early GMO was modestly funded and staffed with employees on short-term assignments from other agencies in borrowed office space at Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) headquarters.

    The first geographic information officer, Ryan Cast, developed the work plan, putting emphasis on discovering what data and opportunities already existed and identifying activities that supported and enhanced the component agencies. Integrating the agencies capabilities and optimizing their interoperability was the focus of his leadership laying a strong foundation for future GIO’s to build upon.

    Weathering Hurricane Katrina

    The GMO was still finding its sea legs when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2004. Since expectations were low, they did not bear the brunt of the critics. The GMO, seeing the negative attention directed towards FEMA, created innovative partnerships with National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA, which was NIMA at the time) and the United States Geographic Survey (USGS) employing their prototype technology to assist the recovery and response community, who were looking for innovations to ensure wide access to data and tools.

    <b>Before and after Hurricane Katrina:</b> Photos taken off the coast of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, show how the storm surge, estimated to have exceeded 20 feet in Waveland, destroyed homes and left only foundations. Trees have been denuded of all vegetation. (Photo: USGS)
    Before and after Hurricane Katrina: Photos taken off the coast of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, show how the storm surge, estimated to have exceeded 20 feet in Waveland, destroyed homes and left only foundations. Trees have been denuded of all vegetation. (Photo: USGS)
    <b>Before and after Hurricane Katrina:</b>In the top image, taken in 1998, notice the Deep South Motel to the left and the apartment building to the right. The bottom image shows the same location on Aug. 31, 2005, two days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. A small portion of the motel is only structure left standing. (Photo: USGS)
    Before and after Hurricane Katrina:In the top image, taken in 1998, notice the Deep South Motel to the left and the apartment building to the right. The bottom image shows the same location on Aug. 31, 2005, two days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. A small portion of the motel is only structure left standing. (Photo: USGS)

    A key partnership was established between FEMA and Louisiana State University to develop a geospatial data clearinghouse, which proved to be useful to many agencies and researchers.

    iCAV. One technical innovation in response to Katrina was the DHS Infrastructure Critical Asset Viewer (iCAV) interactive mapping platform branded as GIS for the Gulf.

    iCAV was built on technology borrowed from NGA’s Palanterra Common Operational Picture (COP) system, repurposed for the DHS mission, providing map-based situational awareness.

    From this operational experience, additional design elements were identified for improvement, including symbology on the front end and data modeling on the back end. These became central aspects of development for the GMO.

    USNG. Katrina also highlighted the need for a more universally accepted referencing framework to assist field operations, planting the seeds for the development of a U.S. National Grid system (USNG).

    I personally experienced the need for a USNG, having lived on the Mississippi Coast at the time. GIS in the government, especially the use of it domestically at the federal level was almost non-existent, and with all the landmarks and road signs gone, the entire coastal area was uncharted territory.

    More than once I helped a lost Red Cross supply truck return to the main road.

    Hurricane Harvey Hits Hard

    Fast forward to Aug. 25, 2017, when there was a brief, collective sigh of relief as the full destructive force of Hurricane Harvey’s eye wall missed the highly populated areas of the Texas coast. The pause was brief. Coming into focus through rainfall observations and numerical weather models meteorologists and emergency managers understood another peril was imminent.

    Harvey had lost its steering winds and would linger in the Houston area dumping over 50 inches of rain in the coming days. In Houston, there was alarm as this deluge would likely far exceed the engineered capacities of the channels and reservoirs and an epic flood was in the making. This anxiety was shared with the regional FEMA office and in the Washington, D.C. headquarters.

    FEMA’s geospatial experts in D.C., having recently demonstrated their successful impact analysis approach in Louisiana, felt assured they could quickly grasp the magnitude of this event with high confidence, but were concerned about another type of flood — the flood of data and tools, as well as inquiries distracting them from their primary focus.

    Partnerships, capabilities and expertise. Events such as these attract well intentioned and ambitious researchers and vendors seeking the time and attention of response leaders to share their resources and gain access to FEMA’s data. Even short conversations consume critical time.

    These secondary groups often contribute valuable resources and services playing key roles in community learning and development so their outreach efforts need to be balanced.

    Rather than ignoring these efforts, FEMA contacted the GMO to leverage their partnerships, capabilities and expertise to facilitate these exchanges. In one day, the GMO developed a publicly accessible portal and assigned a team of geospatial experts the responsibility to catalog and make discoverable all geospatial data related to Hurricane Harvey.

    Over the following two weeks, this response became a model of transparency, innovation and collaboration, and the site is still available supporting research and providing an example for future events. The site was a great example of government getting it right, but it came at a price, and still there are two long shadows cast by towers no longer there.

    Conclusion

    From Greater Manhattan to Katrina’s desolation and the floods of Harvey, significant advances were on the horizon and expectations were on the rise for the GMO. In Part 2, we will explore this growth and see how these lessons and the efforts of many led to the current state of geospatial preparedness and capability in the DHS’ geospatial shop.

    Read Geospatial Solutions’ interview of Christopher Vaughan, FEMA Geospatial Information Officer, and his account of Hurricane Harvey.

    Further Reading

    How GIS — and you — can aid in disaster response


    Homeland Security Working Group

    Hurricane Response Mapping

    LSU GIS Information Clearinghouse

    FEMA Enterprise GIS Services

    Conference Report on S. 2845, Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.

    Geospatial Management Office, established by Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 Title VII, Subtitle B, Section 8201, Homeland Security Geospatial Information – Implemented through DHS Management Directive 4030, 11/12/2004.

    Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD) Hurricane Harvey Response.

    September 11, 2001. Never forget.

    Geographic Information Officers of GMO
    • Ryan Cast (2003-2005)
    • Dan Cotter (2005-2007)
    • Jeff Booth (2007-2012)
    • David Alexander (2012-2015)
    • David Lilley (2015-2016)
    • Michael Donnelly (2016-Present)

    Guest author Nate Smith is an independent consultant who has worked for over 25 years advancing the adoption of geospatial technology to disaster management, humanitarian response and natural disaster risk reduction.

  • Dewberry provides data analytics for Houston post-flooding

    Dewberry, a privately held professional services firm, has been selected as a consultant to Civis Analytics to perform comprehensive data analytics, including flood hazard and property loss modeling and damage estimation, to support the city of Houston’s post-Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts.

    Hurricane Harvey flooding in Houston. (Photo: FEMA)
    Hurricane Harvey flooding in Houston. (Photo: FEMA)

    The granular, structure-level understanding of this catastrophic flooding event will be critically important to the city’s efforts to catalog impacts and direct resources to the rebuilding and recovery efforts, Dewberry said.

    The resulting data will be made accessible to authenticated city staff and non-profit organizations through the new Houston Estimation and Analysis of Loss (HEAL) platform. A cloud-based system that will be used in disaster mitigation planning, HEAL will aggregate data, analytics, tools and visualizations in a web-based environment available to city, state and federal officials and other stakeholders.

    Hurricane Harvey flooding in Houston. (Photo: FEMA)
    Hurricane Harvey flooding in Houston. (Photo: FEMA)

    The data development effort featured a hindcast model of the historic Hurricane Harvey storm event, which dropped 51 inches of rainfall within the city of Houston and surrounding areas over five days in August.

    The HEAL platform will provide the city with a comprehensive data collection and analytical architecture with the ability to calculate and report unmet needs at various levels, such as structure, parcel and census block.

    The analytics will include extensive modeling to estimate flood depth and extent and the structural and contents losses created by it. Model validation will use a wide set of data from debris removal pickup locations, and community field data collection, to federal assistance information, as well as non-traditional sources such as social media videos.

    Hurricane Harvey flooding in Houston. (Photo: FEMA)
    Hurricane Harvey flooding in Houston. (Photo: FEMA)

    For this complex project, Dewberry’s innovative approach has involved strong applications of science and engineering including meteorological data processing, 2D flood risk modeling, and damage assessment to replicate post-Harvey conditions in Houston.

  • 6 story maps show how data can illustrate the world

    Story maps combine geographic data with  multimedia to tell a story and present information in a useful, interesting way. 

    While many story maps are designed for general, non-technical audiences, some story maps can also serve highly specialized audiences. They use the tools of GIS, and often present the results of spatial analysis, but don’t require their users to have any special knowledge or skills in GIS.

    This has resulted in a veritable explosion of story maps.

    “Story maps use geography as a means of organizing and presenting information. They tell the story of a place, event, issue, trend or pattern in a geographic context,” explains Esri’s press staff in a blog. “They combine interactive maps with other rich content — text, photos, illustrations, video and audio — within intuitive user experiences.”

    Haven’t yet dipped your toe into Story Maps? This Esri blog takes users through story map creation step by step.

    Below are six visual narratives that provide timely information using Esri’s Story Map creation tools.

    Faces Show Personal Impact of Opioid Epidemic

    The National Safety Council is adopting the Celebrating Lost Loved Ones map, which allows family and friends of those lost to the opioid epidemic to place an image and description of their late loved one on an interactive map. The project helps raise awareness of the broad impact of the opioid crisis and advances the council’s mission of ending opioid deaths. Unintentional opioid overdose deaths totaled 37,814 in 2016.

    Jeremiah Lindemann, a solution engineer for Esri, created the map in 2016 following the death of his younger brother. Since its launch, the map has gathered more than 1,300 memorials from people across the U.S.

    The map has been a crowdsourced effort, allowing grieving friends and family members to honor their loved ones, share their stories with others and find a supportive community in return.

    Communities Potentially Affected by DACA Policy Changes

    When elected officials talk about changing our immigration system, just who and where are people affected? That’s the question Esri is trying to help answer with a new interactive story map that explores communities with the highest shares of non-citizen residents and DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients.

    The map shows estimates on DACA eligible, recipients, and annual GDP loss from removing DACA workers by congressional district. Data comes from USC’s Dornsife Center for Immigrant Integration.

    The size of the symbol shows the estimate of DACA recipients, and the color of the symbol shows the estimated GDP loss from removing DACA workers. This map shows that the economies of many states in the Southwest and several major urban cities could be substantially disrupted if DACA recipients are no longer permitted to work.

    The Ever-Changing Minimum Wage

    National, state and local government policies toward the minimum wage vary widely and are continually changing. On Jan. 1, new or adjusted minimum wage policies took effect in 18 states and territories. Varying rates, policies, and impacts across the nation make it challenging to understand the minimum wage landscape.

    This Esri story map provides an overview of the the nation’s changing minimum wage policies. A few notable findings:

    • At the highest level, the variability of minimum wage policies from state to state is striking — this ranges from some states in the South that don’t even require a minimum wage, to places like D.C. that have a $12.50 minimum wage (currently the highest for a state or territory).
    • Similarly, the number of cities and counties that have taken it upon themselves to raise wages locally is impressive; these cities and counties have robust plans for raising minimum wages over the next few years.

    Regardless of an area’s minimum wage, all states fail to guarantee minimum wages that actually match up to the cost of living for their respective areas. As such, there is a growing divide between states that have raised minimum wages and are at least bringing minimum wages closer to the cost of living, versus those states that are slower to raise minimum wages (or don’t raise wages at all) and fall much further below the local cost of living.

    Even while minimum wages have nominally increased, inflation has devalued the dollar in such a way that even in 2018 some wages today have less purchasing ability than nominally lesser wages in the 1970s.

    Ireland Encourages Emmigrees to Come Home

    Like much of Ireland, the history of County Donegal is inextricably wedded to the geography of migration. Now county officials are using a story map to try and woo émigrés back to the Emerald Isle.

    The Irish government views the loss of its citizens so seriously that a minister for diaspora affairs was appointed to the Irish cabinet in 2014.

    “Ireland’s Call — To Return Its Global Diaspora Home” displays key factors to assist those in contemplating returning. The story map launches the Global Skills Locator to link its global diaspora with job opportunities back home.

    Smart City 3.0 Book Explained

    Esri China (Hong Kong) Limited uses the story map tools in a unique way — to highlight its new book Smart City 3.0. The book and map discuss artificial intelligence, the internet of things, robotics and the sharing economy, and how all of them are shaping a new phase of development for the smart city.

    Hurricane Harvey’s Lasting Effects

    Within cities, poor communities often live in segregated neighborhoods with higher flood risks. This is especially true in Houston, where Hurricane Harvey hit this past August.

    As in previous disasters like Katrina and Sandy, the heaviest cost of Harvey’s destruction is likely going to be borne by the most vulnerable communities in its path.

    Humanitarian aid organization Direct Relief’s  interactive Esri maps used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s social vulnerability index to show the geographic distribution of households with elderly or disabled members (in orange), immigrant and limited English-speaking populations (in purple), and pockets of poverty (in green). The darker the color, the higher the concentration of these factors in each region.

    Learn more about story maps and how to create them here.

  • Examining silver linings in GPS amidst natural disasters

    Examining silver linings in GPS amidst natural disasters

    Illustration courtesy of USA Today.

    Here in the U.S., this past summer saw an unprecedented number of emergency situations. Hurricanes blasted Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, leaving people stranded and without power, while wildfires ravaged the west.

    So far this year, 15 separate weather and climate disasters have each caused at least $1 billion in damages in the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), meaning, 2017 could tie 2011 for the most billion-dollar disasters. The USA Today chart shows those events.

    In Oregon where I live, we experienced unprecendented smoky skies from wildfires — the hazardous air quality affected the health of many.

    The silver lining? Growing expertise in the fields of disaster response, mapping, location awareness, UAVs and imagery. We continue to improve our ability to respond to disasters, such as with Waze traffic alerts for wildfire evacuations and UAVs that bring a virtual doctor to a crisis scene along with medicine. We use state-of-the-art technology to learn more about how, why and when disasters happen with tools such as UAVs that penetrate the mysteries of active hurricanes.

  • EagleView capturing Hurricane Irma imagery to speed response

    EagleView capturing Hurricane Irma imagery to speed response

    EagleView Technologies is actively flying to acquire post-storm imagery in Florida following Hurricane Irma. With more than 20 planes staged or in the air, EagleView is continuously capturing high-resolution aerial imagery to enable rapid assessment and response to Hurricane Irma relief efforts.

    EagleView is a provider of aerial imagery and property analytics for the government, insurance and commercial sectors.

    Using both fixed-wing aircraft and drones, EagleView imagery supports post-hurricane insurance claims adjusting, property assessment, public safety and land surveying professionals.

    “With these hurricanes affecting so many Americans, we’re putting our planes in the air as soon as possible to begin the image capture process,” said EagleView President Rishi Daga. “From our unique high-resolution post-event imagery to our industry-leading machine learning capabilities, EagleView’s technology can massively accelerate recovery efforts and because of this, we find it crucial to take flight immediately once permitted into the airspace.”

    EagleView’s historical image library, dating back to 2002 in Florida, offers insurance carriers, first responders, non-profit organizations and local government agencies the ability to analyze the impact of the storm on homes, commercial buildings and infrastructure by comparing previously captured imagery with the latest post-event images.

    Image capture and processing post-Hurricane Irma will take place continuously over several weeks, with EagleView making constant updates to its nearly four-petabyte imagery and data library.

    “We have access to an impressive amount of resources in Florida and the surrounding areas, allowing us to provide the largest post-storm image capture capabilities to our clients,” said Jay Martin, senior vice president of operations for EagleView. “Our team is working around the clock to deliver imagery to those who need it most following these devastating weather events.”

    EagleView is capturing varying types of aerial imagery throughout Florida. This includes its ultra-high-resolution (UHR) imagery, also known as Reveal imagery, which is the highest resolution aerial imagery available on the market today.

  • Remote Geosystems UAV software free for hurricane work

    To assist with Hurricane Harvey and Irma emergency response and damage assessments efforts, Remote GeoSystems is donating LineVision software licenses to official agency, volunteer and non-profit drone operators.

    In addition to supporting a Texas A&M team responding to Harvey, LineVision is being pre-deployed to volunteers organized by Florida State University’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program to help with the Hurricane Irma search and rescue and damage assessment.

    Any other volunteer teams, first responders and non-profit organizations providing essential response and recovery services are encouraged to complete the contact form to request free copies of LineVision software for disaster relief efforts.

    LineVision lets emergency response teams easily map drone video of Hurricane Harvey damage assessments. (Image: Remote Geosystems)
    LineVision lets emergency response teams easily map drone video of Hurricane Harvey damage assessments. (Image: Remote Geosystems)

    The LineVision solution is a commercial software suite for UAV, airborne and terrestrial mobile inspection and survey projects requiring geo-referenced video playback, analysis, collaboration and reporting using standard Esri maps and data, Esri ArcMap and Google Earth GIS applications.

    Using the software, anyone with a GPS-enabled video camera, drone or geospatial DVR that can geotag video in the proper format can immediately load their videos and photos to Esri ArcGIS and Google Earth along with compatible geospatial data.

    As the video plays, a position marker moves along an aerial or terrestrial GPS track positioned on a map, continuously indicating where the current frames were recorded. Users may also geospatially “navigate” a video recording by simply clicking a single point along an aerial or terrestrial GPS track.

    The video then automatically advances to that point in the recording so that users can visually interpret what was recorded at that specific place and time. If something of interest is detected in the video, users may also “snap” an image from the video, which is geotagged and saved for future analysis.

    In addition to video, users can import photos and documents from disaster survey and assessment projects. All these imported data types can be saved in a Remote GeoSystems “geoProject” file for data portability, reporting and future analysis in other versions of LineVision desktop, cloud and server applications.

    Help with Harvey

    Remote GeoSystems was contacted by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR), who was deployed with the Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management.

    All parties involved moved quickly, and within a few hours after being contacted, drone video data collection teams were using various versions of the company’s donated LineVision video and photo mapping software to map and view interactive UAV flight tracks with corresponding videos in Esri ArcGIS and Google Earth GIS software.

    The software is being used to help visualize, distribute and share the data available from a record 119 UAS flights that CRASAR conducted over 11 days, including 61 flights on a single day.

    “We first learned about Remote GeoSystems’ LineVision software for mapping geotagged video from drones about a year ago, and at that time even did a proof of concept demo for the USCG and first responders,” said Justin Adams, Air Operations Branch Director for Fort Bend County Manned/Unmanned Ops and CRASAR director of operations for Harvey.  “Now with the Texas Gulf Coast facing a long and difficult assessment and recovery process and Hurricane Irma bearing down on Florida, it became clear now was the time to deploy this valuable UAV solution to operators and volunteers working the affected areas.

    “I have been involved in manned and unmanned aviation for the better part of two decades and Remote Geo offers not only the simplest, but most complete solution for rapid geospatial aerial and ground-based disaster assessment and reporting in the industry.”

    Key Features of LineVision

    • Play videos from single and multi-camera data collection platforms
    • “Click-on-Map” video navigation
    • Set a custom geo-fence around the moving position marker
    • Load Esri ArcGIS or Google Earth-compatible geospatial data files
    • Save video and photo work as geoProjects for simple project reporting, archive and search

  • Drones a valuable tool in hurricane recovery efforts

    Hurricane Harvey is the first major catastrophe in which drones have been used on a large scale by both government and commercial operators, said Ken Long, an analyst at the Freedonia Group.

    UAVs are also likely to find widespread use if Hurricane Irma either directly strikes or skirts the east coast of Florida early next week, as current projections show.

    In addition to helping keep emergency workers safe by allowing them to look for people trapped by floodwaters and inspect damage in high-risk areas, drone use can speed up the recovery process. Drones can be flown over structures such as fuel tanks, power lines and railroad tracks before they can be reached by land, enabling government agencies and utilities to identify what is in most urgent need of repair.

    They also allow insurance adjusters to more quickly process claims, enabling rebuilding efforts to get underway faster. Farmers Insurance reports that an insurance inspector using a drone can complete up to eight times the number of home inspections each day than he or she otherwise would be able to do.

    When Hurricane Harvey first made landfall in Texas on Aug. 25, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) set up a temporary but extensive no-fly zone over Houston and nearby areas to help protect first responders in helicopters and other manned aircraft. This flight ban included all drone operations except those specifically approved by the FAA.

    https://youtu.be/XRdUV4WqnDE

    In the 10 days that followed Hurricane Harvey, the FAA issued more than 100 separate authorizations for drone use in the Houston area, according to the Wall Street Journal. Some of the applications for drone use were reviewed and approved by the FAA within hours, an unusually fast turnaround time for an agency that typically takes days or weeks to make decisions.

    With the exception of a handful of flights conducted by media firms, all of the approved operations were for drones used in conjunction with, or on behalf of, government agencies. Drones were used to inspect bridges, roadways and power lines; assess the condition of oil refineries and water plants; and survey coastal damage.

    As the flood waters continued to recede and flight restrictions were eased or lifted, insurance companies — including Allstate, Farmers Insurance, Travelers and USAA — began to use drones to assess property damage and speed claims processing.

    However, drone use by insurance companies and other commercial users is limited by FAA rules that do not allow them to be flown above 400 feet, outside the visual line of sight of the operator, or above people not directly involved in their operation, unless a waiver is granted.

    These regulations could change with a 2018 FAA reauthorization bill being considered by Congress.

    “The demonstrated usefulness of drones in Hurricane Harvey response and recovery efforts could well influence the content of that legislation,” Long said.

    Even if the current FAA regulations remain in place, U.S. commercial drone demand will expand rapidly from what is currently an extremely small market base, according to the Freedonia Group’s Drones (UAVs) study. “Non-military government use of drones will also climb at a robust rate through 2020,” Long said.

    Both commercial and non-military government market gains will be fueled by further improvements in drone designs, making them more capable and easier to operate, customized for use in specific applications and cost-saving.

  • DigitalGlobe releases satellite imagery of Houston

    DigitalGlobe releases satellite imagery of Houston

    DigitalGlobe released satellite imagery of Houston after Hurricane Harvey hit.

    Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Gulf Coast of Texas — just southwest of Houston — on Aug. 25. According to DigitalGlobe, the hurricane packed sustained winds at more than 130 miles per hour and has been identified as the largest single rainmaking event in continental U.S. history.

    The images show downtown Houston, George Bush Intercontinental Airport and the interstate highways, which are relatively dry. Significant flooding remains in towns east and north of Houston, including Kingwood, Highlands and Channelview, the company says.