Analyze Data for Homeland Security

These are maps of the NORAD facility in Colorado. The line of site analysis is shows how the software can be used to help homeland security officials determine optimal surveillance coverage. The other map shows the line of site analysis used with 3D mapping. Overall this exercise was extremely frustrating because the directions were unclear throughout. I was just relieved to be finished with the exercise and be able to move on to the final project.

Analyzing Washington D.C. Crime

This is a map of schools color coded by the number of crimes committed within 1000ft. It is hard to tell if the drug free zone is effective without having the statistics from before the drug free zone laws were created. Currently 39% of all the crime is occurring within 1000ft of a school if the percentage was higher before the laws were created then it could be considered effective, but 39 percent is still very high in general.

Week 6 Location Decisions

These maps show proximity to different features within Alachua County. The Euclidean distance tool was used along with the feature to raster tool in order to create raster layers depicting the different distance rings around each feature. Making sure environment setting were correct in each data frame was a big part of accomplishing this assignment. I had to reset the extent settings multiple times in order to keep the raster layers from extending past the county bounds.

Week 5

This map shows the university student occupancy rate in Pewter City. The darker shades of blue indicate higher occupancy rates. This exercise shows how thematic maps can be useful in social impact assessments.

This is an environmental impact map showing existing and current traffic impact on a new building. It shows that there will be insignificant impact in the collector zone, but significant negative impact on the local zone. The exercise was very straight forward and easy to understand.

Week 4 Participation

Deepwater Horizon Animation

GIS allows for the mapping of patterns of destruction in order for responders to accurately allocate resources to affected areas. For the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill, GIS is being used to track the spread of oil in order to see where containment devices, such as booms, need to be placed. GIS can also be used to map water current patterns to help predict where the oil might be heading in order to take preventative measure before the oil reaches other areas. Fishery closures are also being mapped which shows how the fishing industry is being impacted by the oil spill. Since fishing is a major industry in the gulf, mapping the closures helps the public and government officials visualize what areas are being affected by the spill. These visual aids will help officials better analyze what economic impacts will occur from the closures. Assistance requests and insurance claims will need to be evaluated based on the areas affected by the oil and maps of the spill can assist with more efficient processing. Keeping the public informed of the cleanup progress is accomplished by posting information on the internet. Online mapping and data hosting by the EPA, Google, ESRI, and NOAA are helping to keep the public informed about ongoing issues such as fishery closures, spill extent, affected animal habitats, etc. Many GIS software programs have been created to help with modeling disasters. HAZUS was created for earthquakes, flooding, and hurricanes and has an option for estimating debris generation. An Area Contingency Plan (ACP) dataset could have been used to help oils spill responders with no previous knowledge of the area familiarize themselves and begin the response and recovery operations.

ESI Maps

This is an ESI map showing coastal lands that are vulnerable to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. The most vulnerable type of coastal land is fine to medium grain sand beaches. Approximately 86,000 ft of shoreline will be affected when the oil reaches the area.

This is a map of the potential affected animal habitats resulting from the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. Invertebrates are the most affected with over 50 square miles of affected area. The map also shows booming operations in the area. Currently there are no verified in place operations.

Hurricanes

This is an elevation map of Key West, Florida. The highest elevation is 3.75 meters.

This map shows the percentage of flooding by land type. Most of Key west was flooded by the 8ft storm surge and developed land was the most heavily impacted land type.

This is map of infrastructure and health care facilities. The main road into Key west is Highway 1 and should be top priority for clearance in order to allow delivery of resources. The 2 hospitals and 1 airport were flooded buy the surge and should be next on the priority list.