Informed Decisions for Extreme Events through GIS: Enabling Resilient Responses through Location-Based, Real-Time Hazard and Impact Information

Decision-making during extreme events requires clear situational awareness, which for meteorological events includes information on available forecast(s) and their significance—and the significance of a forecast depends both on its track and intensity, and a user’s situation and concerns relative to a forecast track.

Our session will describe how geospatial (GIS) datasets derived from detailed tropical cyclone hazard modeling can convey critical information about pending events. As this modeling integrates geolocated atmospheric, hydrologic, geophysical and socioeconomic data, it provides powerful contextual and relational information between places, people and potential impacts across affected locations and sectors. A near real-time GIS data stream can provide insight into the geographic extent and severity of specific meteorological hazards, with the focus on tropical cyclone phenomena being wind and storm surge hazards.

Applications of the GIS data stream will be demonstrated through the use of:

• Visualization and analysis platforms for integration and contextualization of hazard data for communication and decision-making;
• Dissemination of GIS based data to a wide array of end users through flexible data formats such as reports, applications, dashboards, web applications and services and
• Impact based products that provide “contextual” information by combining geospatial data from meteorological modeling and other forms of location-based intelligence.