New Progress

I'm feeling very confident with my newly found focus.

Today I contacted Bernadette Chasteen, a GIS expert at RTI International, and asked some general questions about GIS and disaster relief as well as submitted a list of interview questions for her review. I should have the interview completed before the weekend. But here's some very helpful information that I already received from her:

She forwarded me an email from ArcWatch, a monthly newsleter for GIS professionals that she subscribes to. In the email were links to various recent GIS applications, including the recent wild fires in CA. Here's a link to information on that: http://www.esri.com/news/arcwatch/1107/firestorm.html. The technology involved in efforts to track and display elements of dozens of wildfires burning simultaneously is amazing. GIS professionals and technology were used at every command post on the ground and in various FEMA command centers to provide visual data on the current state and size of the fires themselves, the geographic location of each fire, and potential spread based on wind and other weather conditions. They even modeled the potential spread of smoke resulting from the fires. GIS was also used to show coordinates of different personnel working to fight the fires and to aid in coordination of the efforts (They showed closed roads v. those open for evacuations, locations of firefighting teams and equipment in relation to strategic locations around the fires. "...Agency personnel took advantage of the analysis and visualization capabilities to help federal, state, and local agencies collaborate, prioritize, and best utilize manpower and resources as well as monitor events on the ground in near real time." Satellite heat signature data was incorporated into the maps to show the hottest areas of the fires in real time (this could also probably aid efforts to track down the origination point of the fire). “Real-time weather (wind) was incorporated to provide an indication of what direction and at what speed the fire would travel. This information, when coupled with GIS layers that located homes and other developments in harm's way, provided fire officials with better information to make tactical and strategic decisions concerning public safety, resource allocation, evacuation needs, and additional equipment needed.” GIS also aided in identifying critical facilities and infrastructure on which to focus protection efforts, property and community damage assessments, selecting locations for relief centers, planning and carrying out evacuations, and developing recovery plans. “Specialists used GIS to analyze vegetation, slope, and other landscape features to help understand and potentially predict fire behavior in the event weather conditions worsened.” Wow! Imagine how disorganized efforts to fight these fires and protect people and property would have been without this technology!

Mrs. Chasteen also pointed me to a website for an organization which she is involved in that provides volunteer GIS services in disaster situations ( http://giscorps.org/). She elaborated on recent work with the Red Cross to place displaced New Orleans residents into homes immediately following the flooding caused by Katrina. Her efforts were to GeoCode addresses of people in our area who had volunteered to shelter Katrina victims. The addresses were added to a database that housed geographic information of “safe houses” around the country so that the Red Cross could find shelter for the families.

So, I’m getting some interesting stuff…. More later.