Predicting and Preparing for Natural Disasters

Margaret A. Davidson

DirectorNOAA Coastal Services Center

June 7, 2005

HURREVAC Inland Flood Planning and HURREVAC Inland Flood Planning and Response ToolResponse Tool

Capabilities: emergency managers can access real-time flood information:

• current rainfall estimates• rainfall forecasts• current and forecasted

river stages• general flood alerts

Partners: • NOAA Coastal Services Center • NOAA National Weather Service• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

NOAA Pacific Services Center NOAA Pacific Services Center Risk Management Activities Risk Management Activities

• Hazards Training and Technical Assistance • Locally Applicable, Regionally Replicable Decision-Support Tools • Natural Hazards Regional Partnerships and Integration • Pacific Islands Geospatial Network • Pacific Islands Mapping Activities Database • Pacific Islands Spatial Training

http://www.csc.noaa.gov/psc/riskmgmt.html

Pacific Risk Management ‘Pacific Risk Management ‘OhanaOhana (PRiMO) (PRiMO)

• Roundtable in 2004• Second meeting in March 2005

Working Groups/hui o hana:

• Coastal, Ocean, and Atmospheric Processes and Observations

• Data Management

• Data Analysis and Decision-Support Tools

• Communications Infrastructure and Information Dissemination

• Education, Outreach, and Training

• Traditional Knowledge and Practices

Enhance communication, coordination, and collaboration among the Pacific islands agencies, institutions, and organizations involved in natural hazards risk management

Flood Forecast MappingWeb based flood inundation maps for emergency managers

• Used LIDAR data from FEMA and State of North Carolina

• Built unsteady hydraulic model for 73 miles of Tar River with NOAA NWS and CSC

• Presented flood forecast results in easy to read format over the Web

• Used operationally by NWS Southeast River Forecast Center as flood forecast tool during Hurricane Isabel (2003)

Historical Hurricane Tracks ToolHistorical Hurricane Tracks Tool

• Search for tropical cyclone tracks by city, state, or zip code, latitude and longitude, or geographic region

• View coastal population data versus hurricane strikes for coastal counties from Maine to Texas

• Access tropical cyclone reports written by specialists at the National Hurricane Center

http://hurricane.csc.noaa.gov/hurricanes

Providing Resources and Assistance During Hurricanes

• GIS assistance to FEMA for forecast information and decision making

• Products used for FEMA Presidential Briefing Package

• Products used for resource allocation decisions

• Group on Earth Observations (GEO) – Integrated Earth Observation System Public Engagement Workshop

• Ocean.US – Second Annual IOOS Implementation Conference

Key MessageKey Message

High resolution shallow coastal bathymetric and topographic data (Digital Elevation Models) are essential framework for:

• modeling and understanding coastal risk and vulnerability to inundation, from a variety of causes

• other applications, including coastal habitat assessment

Observing Systems Observing Systems and Coastal Disasters and Coastal Disasters