Colleagues doing predictive modeling to analyze which buildings would become unstable based on the distance from the blast; a tool that helped building officials prioritize inspections. I remember archaeologists using excavation methods to find survivors and remains of victims in the rubble.
Although somewhat horrifying in hindsight,
These were the first applications of 3D GIS to future events. Unfortunately, the collapse of the Twin Towers was one of them. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill incorporated crowdsourcing of oil spills, endangered birds, and marine life into the portfolio of tools we began to use for disaster response. Monitoring of social media provided new insights into the populations affected, demonstrating the idea of continually leveraging new concepts and technologies.
Then came September taught us how to
Respond to the impact of a major disaster in multiple locations simultaneously. We were reminded that the response required the support of amazon database volunteers, nonprofits, and the need to include public and private utilities. From a government perspective, police and fire support was inherent, but we quickly learned that we needed to incorporate disciplines such as public works, building and safety, public health, human services, and economic development into the response effort.
These attacks changed the face of urban
Planning, including the application of geodesign, and forever altered the way we build communities. Looking at images from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, I see progress in using technology to improve our approach. We have moved from ad hoc commonly used key languages for localization printed maps to large displays showing real-time common operating pictures and dashboards. We have also seen the incorporation of drones and mobile devices to capture asset and infrastructure conditions.
As I write this blog, we are preparing for
Hurricane Irma. I see cities like Tampa, Florida have already launched road closure applications to aid early evacuations. We are seeing many lessons rich data learned from the past being deployed quickly. We will anxiously wait to see what the im. Ipact and response requires. As a government employee and technology professional, my exposure to, experi. Ience with, and support of these disaster events has taught me one thing: software companies are not al. Iways software companies.