HLS 6070 DF2: Emergency Management and Geographic Information Systems

Comment on these 2 postings as if you were talking in my voice, do not lose the name above each post. 100 words and 3 sources each: Daniel Divincenzo We should be tasking the European Union Airbus Defense and Space. The programs it includes are SPOT, Pleiades, Terrasar-x. We should be requesting satellite imagery of the area around the Earthquake. The reason we should choose SPOT over the other programs is because they have finer spatial resolution than LANDSTAT. Also the SPOT program has visible and near infrared imagery which could be applied to see if any fires have been created by the earthquake so the appropriate responders could target those zones. With these images, we would be able to see the best route to the danger areas and where to apply manpower and other resources. With the imagery we would be able to see high population areas where search and rescue operations would be most successful. Ari Winograd As the GIS team leader responding to a major earthquake, I would task the US Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat program, the USGS aerial photography program, and Google Earth Pro. I would request that the Landsat program utilize a combination of visible, near infrared, and thermal infrared spectral resolutions to provide images of the operation zone beginning with a broad regional perspective and zooming in on specific active operations zones. I would request spatial resolutions varying between 15 and 90 meters to provide close-in and zoomed-out images of the disaster zone. For more specific images of ground operations and damage zones, I would request that the USGS aerial photography program make a mosaic of images to develop a topographical map of the earthquake zone. Lastly, I would recommend the use of Google Earth to provide natural color imagery of the earthquake zone which may be viewed from multiple viewpoints, provide a variety of overlays, and deliver 3-D imagery. Additionally, Google Earth would allow our emergency management operations center to virtually move along the streets of the disaster zone to identify specific buildings and streets. The Landsat program has been in existence since 1972, providing a historical record of images that can be utilized to determine ground displacement as a result of this and previous earthquakes. This record of images may be overlaid in the Landsat system to display a current image juxtaposed with a variety of past images. The near infrared spectrum images are important in this situation due to the high reflectance of soil at this wavelength. This imagery may be used to clearly delineate between bodies of water, vegetation, and soil which may all have been displaced by the most recent earthquake. Additionally, due to the Landsat program's thermal infrared image capabilities, it will be useful for images to be taken of the disaster zone at these wavelengths to provide a map of potential fires in the disaster zone, both above ground and below rubble. The USGS aerial photography will be able to provide the team with a closer view of the disaster zone with a 1-meter ground resolution and customized area coverage of 3.75 minutes longitude by 3.75 latitude, or 7.5 minute longitude by 7.5 minute latitude. This would provide close-in imagery of the disaster zone that display color-infrared, as well as natural color, and black and white without image displacement or camera tilt. An orthophoto map of the disaster zone, potentially mosaicked into a full map of the disaster zone, would provide important low altitude imagery necessary to provide greater detail of the disaster zone. Use of Google Earth would be supplementary in nature because of the versatility of the program to provide close-in resolution of between 0.5 and 30 meters and the ability to view images on the ground, at street-level. This imagery would support the mapping of landmarks and roads on the topographical map provided by the USGS aerial photography. Additionally, street-level images would allow members of the emergency operations center to identify specific buildings and streets to help find where victims may be trapped.