Applications for GIS Week 5: Damage Assessment

This week I learned how GIS is utilized to assess damage after natural events such as hurricanes. First I created a map tracking the path of Hurricane Sandy, using custom symbology to represent the storm types.


Next I learned how to create data in ArcGIS Pro, and how this data is used to assess damage and effectively provide relief after a natural disaster. I compared images from before and after Sandy, and determined the damage level of each structure within a study area. It was easy to identify which buildings had been destroyed or majorly damaged by the storm, but determining lesser levels of damage and flooding was more difficult using only an aerial view. I looked for debris surrounding the structures to give me an idea of the damage. I also had to use my better judgement when determining structure types outside of residential, and data detailing that would have been useful. I was not sure what to mark parcels containing parking lots, so I just classified them as unknown.


I then needed to find out the correlation between the damage and proximity to the shoreline. To achieve this, I created a polyline feature to represent the coast line, then used the select by location query to view which structures were within the specified range from the coastline. I found a strong connection between structure damage and distance from the coastline. 92% of structures within 100 m of the coastline were completely destroyed, while 98% of structures 300 m from the coastline suffered no more than minor damage, with 42% of those showing little to no damage at all.




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