Impact-Based Decision Support Services for Severe Winter Storms: A New York Case Study

This study analyzes four winter storms affecting the New York City area in 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2016 to evaluate the resulting economic and health effects and to assess the degree to which improved Impact Decision Support Services (IDSS) can reduce economic losses and other impacts. This study includes two major components. First, we evaluate the social and economic effects of winter storms on the New York City area. Potential social and economic effects of severe winter weather in the NYC area are wide ranging. To standardize our approach, we organize the economic and social costs into five interrelated categories: defensive investments, mitigating actions, asset damage, service interruptions, and human health. Second, we use expert elicitations in four sectors - aviation, ground transportation, energy, and emergency management - to understand the degree to which IDSS mitigated the impacts of the snowstorm event and could have been further mitigated with improved IDSS. We focus the second analysis on two of the snowstorms: the December 25-27, 2010 blizzard and the January 22-25, 2016 blizzard.