Inspired by a fantastic read from Ryan Lanclos (ESRI) published by GeoConnexion in September 2018.
Between August and October of 2017, parts of the southern United States, Mexico and the Caribbean were beset by a series of natural disasters that seemed to occur in relentless succession. Disasters of this magnitude result in incomparably widescale damage. However, using spatial analytics technology, they have been able to make better decisions about where to target relief and improve their infrastructure for the future when disaster strikes again.
Communities dealing with natural disasters need to understand their risk and know which areas are most vulnerable to better prepare. Before a storm hits, Direct Relief uses demographic information to analyse different factors that can contribute to populations being more vulnerable to disasters. During extreme weather disasters such as Harvey, the heaviest price is usually borne by the most vulnerable communities in lower income areas in cities that are often located in the path of the watershed.
Understanding areas of high vulnerability can be valuable in ways that extend beyond mitigating the effects of disaster.
With flood insurance rates constantly on the rise, Key West sought discounts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the federal agency in charge of disaster response resource coordination in the US. FEMA’s Community Rating System recognises and encourages community floodplain management activities that exceed the US’s National Flood Insurance Program’s minimum standards by reducing insurance premium rates for communities that qualify.
Once the disaster occurs and response is under way, knowing where resources are located and managing their use is one of the biggest challenges for agencies. This means mapping not only resource locations as they are deployed for response and recovery but also community resources such as shelters and disaster recovery centres. Information, such as points of distribution for drinking water, food, and other resources, is critical if the community’s distribution system is knocked out or homes are damaged or destroyed and citizens need supplies.
In the immediate aftermath of large-scale natural disasters, decision-makers need to know who and what have been affected. Resources such as interactive impact summary map could be zoomed in and out to focus on a specified location, and everything from housing areas to community centres to shopping complexes could be identified in seconds.
The quicker this is completed, the better, as damage assessment information is needed to request a disaster declaration that can offer much needed assistance to the community. This initial damage assessment established benchmarks for degree of damage and insurance coverage and is required by FEMA to determine whether a federal disaster declaration is warranted. Because of this collection effort, Key West received word from FEMA that it had enough detailed documentation of the damage that the president would declare a major disaster for the city – meaning that federal funds for assistance would be made available to the government as well as individuals.
Newer forms of technology are often left out of the disaster preparedness conversation, and organisations historically rely more on institutional knowledge and instinct when responding to incidents. One example of this is a utility company that has remote sensors monitoring gas pipelines for leaks during earthquakes or other disasters. The more prepared we are to face the new normal, the more resilient we are when disaster strikes.
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