Description:

Since 1980, the United States has sustained 378 one-billion dollar weather and climate disasters. Beyond the financial implications of such events, these disasters have varied and long-lasting impacts on human and natural systems across the country. Often these impacts are greatest in socioeconomically marginalized communities that may not have access to resources to recover from such events. Analyses suggest that the number and costs of such weather and climate disasters is increasing due in part to increased exposure, vulnerability, and frequency of extreme natural disasters. Fortunately, many Federal, state, local, and tribal government sectors have established protocols for responding to such events, often while leveraging resources from industry and academic partners.

Although the specific missions vary across the disaster response spectrum and from event to event, an accurate account of damage assessment from aerial image collection has proven to serve as a critical starting point for many of these functions. Particularly as it relates to weather related natural disasters, for emergency managers, rapid collection and analysis of such information aids in determining the need for disaster declarations and mobilization of critical resources for efficient response and recovery. During severe storm and flood events, National Weather Service offices can use the same data to document the cause and severity of damage, then relay important impact-based information to the public. For researchers, accurate, high-fidelity data can be used to diagnose sub-storm scale processes after the fact, and use the information to improve the science of forecasts and warnings for future events.

Regardless of the specific application, innovative use of aerial-based platforms and the development of efficient procedures for their deployment are essential to effectively prepare for future disasters and adaptively enable quality data collection for damage assessments.

This special session aims to bring together developers and operators of novel aerial image collection methods (e.g., uncrewed aircraft) for storm damage assessment, and combine them with relevant stakeholders and decision makers, to share the current state of research and operational applications, and to spark collaboration and innovation for greater societal and environmental benefit.