Alachua House

I'm SOooooo looking forward to doing this all over again next week...  the same 'only different'.    Time consuming only because i'm not one of those 20-somethings we see on tv that can reprogram the world with six keystrokes.  No major blunders, at least not anything i couldn't recover from.  Now to enjoy the weekend...

Oh, the parameter map above that isn't masked...  i 'told it to' mask...  did every step identical to all the others and it refused...  never did figure that out, so i ELMO'd it and moved on.

week 5 Deliverable 2

Sometimes everything just all comes together.  This one was flawless.  After the last couple I/we've had, this was a very relaxing change.  Making this took only minutes.

Week 5 Deliverable 1

An easy to do and easy to understand project of understandable worth.  I could have saved plenty of time by making the 'fix' beforehand instead of waiting for the expected Error to strike though.  That ate up a lot of time, which could have been used to do 2 and 3.  I'd recommend everyone else 'fix' their Impact folder instead of hoping to be lucky and not have the error.  The fix also skips from the middle of step three to step six.  "Do You Feel Lucky?"

Participation Summary for Deepwater GIS Disaster Response

Timothy Mahar


4048 GIS Apps

Amber Bloechle

10 June 2010



Summary

Role of GIS in Disasters

As seen in Deepwater Horizon Response



In times of disaster, whether local, national, or international, GIS managers could be expected to already be prepared tp offer a wide variety of maps in a plethora of formats. Along the lines of the Combat GIS, they should also be ready to offer maps of things not before thought of. And to do it faster than they believed possible.

When considering something on the magnitude of the Deepwater Horizon response, these maps would offer information far beyond the basic requirement of knowing where the oil is. Maps, preferably 3d in many instances should be available to show available staging grounds –such as Destin Florida just announced State Staging Ground which is now located in Henderson Beach State Park along it’s beachfront parking areas which are quite near local docks and the local airport.

Other layers could include all other boat/dock locations, airplane/airstrip locations, as well as helicopters and helipads. Not to be overlooked are the US Naval and Air Force assets though not all of these would be within the confines of the original spill area.

Of utmost importance would be the mapping of the locations of the various species. Not just the endangered ones, though that would be a high priority, but all the species along the coastal transition zone from surf to dunes which would be impacted. Nesting birds and turtles are important but so are the fish releasing eggs in the gulf which will be killed by the pesticide being called ‘dispersant’.

Additionally the timing of thee tides will cause some places to be spared while some areas will receive an extra dose. A tidal zone map would be needed with a chart showing the times over the next days/weeks.

Worse, oil near the surface will trend eastward on the current, while deeper oil will trend west on the lower current. To the East you have nests, to the wwest you have corals and whales.

Other layers/maps would display surface temperature, differences in which may reveal unseen oil. Another layer/map would be albedo which would certainly reveal surface oils. There are also several things we monitor in the gulf such as the chemistry of the water which would reveal the presence of unseen oil.

Ideally these would all be mapped onto a main map like out part II of the oil week assignment which could then be broken down by smaller area numbers, yet they would all remain on the same scale, and projection and be relevant and easily read by anyone who saw them as responders moved from one area to another.

The perfect output type would seem to be 3D because it could show an undated location of the oil, either visibly, or chemically, and would also demonstrate it’s proximity to the currents, to wildlife, above or below, and to the available command posts and their resources.

Mississippi Katrina flooding by land type

Good to know the next time i'm at the Isle of Capri that the surge will be largely stopped by Dog Island.  Being familiar with the coast and having been out on both Ship and Dauphin islands, i can say the 15 ft foot surge there topping them is no surprise, but the relative lack of flooding from the surge in the very flat area from Biloxi to Gulfport (and beyond) comes as quite a surprise. I take that to be -much like Destin, the area is a peninsula and the water just drains right off and doesn't stick around to 'flood'. 

Mississippi/Katrina Flooding.

This was an enjoyable project which revealed the impact of flooding based on land type across coastal Mississippi.  The relative amount of flooded wetlands versus infrastructure was somewhat suprising (though it shouldn't have been).  Other than the data not 'taking' on the first download, i had no problems with this exercise and actually rather enjoyed it.  While i found a way to 'straighten' the map, i opted to leave it in the format presented.