Accurate and timely information are essential to drive a coordinated and effective response to natural disasters; and the use of geospatial data for decision support and situational awareness is vital, as it provides critical information regarding conditions on the ground. Unfortunately, the real-time application of geospatial data is still hampered by significant bottlenecks that delay its availability to first responders, and by the lack of automated tools to analyze this information to prioritize actionable items and identify critical areas for response. This project will investigate ways to mitigate bottlenecks by integrating and testing a hardware and software solution that will capture, georeference data and disseminate to a distributed user group. GIS-based multi-infrastructure models will be developed that will assist first-responders in distilling large volumes of geospatial data into actionable items. The effort will focus on the LiDAR remote sensing data due to its unique ability to directly provide 3D mapping and change detection. To accomplish these tasks, three scientific investigations that are fundamental to real-time situational awareness will be pursued: (1) an investigation of spatial accuracy obtainable with geospatial data, (2) development of algorithms for real-time determination of high-resolution change, and, (3) dissemination of detected high-resolution 3D change through GIS-based multi-infrastructure models. In addition, the project will define automated process to analyze geospatial data in real-time to assist in the response to and rapid recovery from natural disasters. The real-time tools developed will allow the leveraging of existing LiDAR datasets as a baseline model for rapid change detection in the event of a natural disaster, and enable more effective response and quicker recovery from natural hazard occurrences.
Natural hazards such as hurricanes and earthquakes can have significant impact on communities, as clearly evidenced by recent hurricanes Sandy and Ike, and the 2011 Tôhoku earthquake in Japan. Regrettably, the occurrence of both hurricanes and earthquakes is beyond our control. However, can be controlled is the response to these events to minimize their impact and spur post-event recovery. Currently, in the aftermath of natural events, decision makers are hampered by the inefficient dissemination of information regarding the location, scale and nature of the devastation. To mitigate these challenges, the research team will develop a set of real-time software tools to enable the analysis of geospatial information to define a set of prioritized actionable items that will speed the response to, and aid in the rapid recovery from natural disasters. This project brings together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and students, and experts in emergency response to earthquakes and hurricanes from California and Texas to develop real-time models for effective dissemination of geospatial information for rapid and coordinated response to natural hazards.
