Presentation(s)

1. Tornado Risk and Impact Analysis Using Dasymetric Modeling [download]

   Accurate information is critical to planners and first responders. Inaccuracies and inconsistencies can have a deleterious impact on disaster planning, preparedness, emergency response, disaster recovery and risk mitigation. This presentation demonstrates a technique that can be used to improve the quality of any population data set and its application to the analysis of over 10 years of tornado data from the National Weather Service. Population maps created from any data source (e.g., census tract, census block, tax assessment, etc.) can be intelligently disaggregated to create more accurate population distributions that can then be analyzed through the intersection of actual or projected risk polygons. Planners, first responders, and officials at all levels need accurate information to make important decisions involving emergency response and preparedness. Tornado warning data from the National Weather Service can be used to overlay population maps with warning polygons, but these maps do a poor job of accurately reflecting the actual population distribution.

   Planners should be able to use the historical trends of tornadoes to make critical decisions to minimize risk to human life and property. First responders should be able to use real-time warning data combined with population distributions to more intelligently focus assistance efforts. Inaccuracies can lead to a misallocation of resources in both the planning and emergency response stages.

   Dasymetric mapping is a technique that can be used to disaggregate data and produce maps that more accurately reflect the facts on the ground. While this technique has been used in other areas, such as flood hazards, it has not, to our knowledge, been applied to tornado warning data. This research has been funded by a grant from NOAA through the University of North Alabama.
    

   Presenters

   John D. Crabtree, Ph.D.

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2. Learning from Extreme Events: Tornado Outbreaks of 2011 [download]

   April 27th, 2011 saw one of the largest outbreaks of severe weather in US history with over 50 confirmed tornadoes in Alabama alone. Less than one month later, Joplin MO was hit with one of the deadliest tornadoes in US history. These two events caused more than $13 billion in economic losses emanating from building damage. Currently, structural engineering does not consider tornado forces in design because of the very high wind speeds and very low probability of occurrence. To better understand tornado damage, the National Science Foundation and the American Society of Civil Engineers assembled a team of researchers from academia and industry to collect, analyze and store perishable data in the hopes of reducing future loss from similar events.

   In both Tuscaloosa and Joplin the tornadoes carved a half mile wide path across the cities through neighborhoods made up of single-family wood framed homes with some multistory apartments, commercial, light industrial and institutional buildings. The field investigation recorded building damage in the form of photographs, detailed case studies, and ground based LiDAR point clouds. All data was geo-referenced and uploaded to Web maps within days of collection. Individual building damage was rated on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale. A contour map of the EF wind speeds was developed. Although the Tuscaloosa and Joplin tornadoes were classified as EF4 and EF5 respectively, the vast majority (approximately 85%) of the affected area was at a much lower EF2 wind speed, below 135 mph.

   Based on this study, a dual objective-based tornado engineering design philosophy is proposed that has the simultaneous objectives of (1) reducing monetary losses due to building damage; and (2) reducing loss of human life through properly designed safe rooms. This presentation focuses on the procedures developed and used to collect, store and display perishable data collected after the Tuscaloosa and Joplin tornadoes. A data fusion method that is based on time and space synchronization was employed in this project. Certain types of sensing were instantaneous such as photographs, while other types occurred over time such as video recordings. Tracking the time and location of measurements, through the use of handheld GPS units, allowed for coordination of all sensed data, which provided a robust spatial-temporal dataset that can be displayed, accessed, and downloaded from the Web at: http://esridev.caps.ua.edu/tuscaloosa_tornado.
    

   Presenters

   Andrew Graettinger

   Randy K. Smith

   Blake Doherty

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3. Assess-Report-Map: How a GIS tool was used for Tuscaloosa’s Damage Assessment [download]

   The City of Tuscaloosa reached out for GIS support, among other things, after their devastating tornado this past April. As part of the Esri support team, Geocove enabled the City of Tuscaloosa with a tool to make the collection and automation of the damage assessment information more efficient. Today's presentation will focus on the damage assessment process, tool and lessons learned. Items discussed will include establishing a process during or after an event, rolling out a new tool, training for First Responders,volunteers and hardware provisioning.

   Presenters

   Karyn Tareen

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4. ArcGIS for Emergency Management [download]

   My presentation will outline what Esri is doing to provide downloadable  tools and templates that support emergency management mission requirements.  These free downloads provide a baseline configuration of the ArcGIS platform for use in emergency management operations.  This configuration and the best practices it advances were created from extensive experience in helping respond to a wide variety of major disasters and emergencies and exercises.  The major portions of this presentation include an examination of emergency management challenges, how GIS can be  configured to  align with the ICS structure, and the 15 emergency support functions  (ESF’s)enabling emergency managers to share dynamic situational awareness with authorized stakeholders.

   Presenters

   Scott Ward

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