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Displaying 450 of about 450 resultsBy Kathleen Schaefer, PhD student in Civil Engineering at the University of California; and Nicholas Pinter, Professor at the UC Davis Department of Earth and Planetary Science
FEMA flood insurance rate maps (FIRMs) are the principle tool for managing the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). They identify properties whose owners may…
By David LaShell
With 600 miles of inhabited coastline and a physical location that many scientists believe is susceptible to a major earthquake, New York City’s vulnerability to disaster is one of its biggest liabilities. Since then, many experts have asked, “How can we do better next time?” Looking to the future and adopting new methods to predict an…
Pedestrian evacuation maps lay out routes and walk times to reach safety in coastal communities
The nearest high ground is one of the most important pieces of information for safely evacuating from an incoming tsunami.
New maps published today by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) show the fastest routes to safety for…
New projections from the U.S. Geological Survey indicate Hurricane Harvey is likely to cause significant beach erosion along the Texas coastline, with water overtopping dunes and in some cases inundating areas.
As of Thursday afternoon, the USGS Coastal Change Forecast model is predicting that 100 percent of Texas’s 367 miles of coastline will undergo…
Open-source technology is putting vulnerable communities on the map for the first time – and it could save lives.
On a recent visit to Mixco, Guatemala, the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) and students from George Washington University (GWU) mapped communities using nothing more than open-source platforms and the GPS in their smartphones.
T…
By Jess Bratton
A geographic information system (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographic data. FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery is home to a GIS team that utilizes a variety of imagery and georeferenced data in mapping the impacts of natural and man-made disasters. FEMA obtains…
By Shannon Cunniff
Coastal communities are struggling to accurately understand their flooding risks and identify appropriate solutions for mitigating the effects of rising seas and increased storm surges.
Fortunately, new technologies are emerging that facilitate more rapid acquisition of more accurate data and improve data visualization to support ef…
As part of the Tsunami Inundation Maps project (CITSU), the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Chilean Navy (SHOA) made available information related to the occurrence of tsunamis on the Chilean coast. SHOA, which is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the national tsunami warning system, established the CITSU project in 1977 to…
New topographic and predictive rainfall data means more people in Harris County will be mapped in floodplains.
By Davis Land
When Hurricane Harvey left so much of Houston underwater, it highlighted a problem that’s been getting worse for years: Harris County’s existing floodplain maps just don’t work.
In the year since the historic storm, flood cont…
By Leah Squires
In the past few years, the severity of California wildfires has intensified, a shift with strong ties to climate change, as the landscape becomes increasingly arid and temperatures rise. This year alone has seen two of the most devastating fires in California’s history.
The Camp Fire is California’s deadliest and most destructive fire…
By Esprit Smith
Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water on southeast Texas in late August 2017, making it the wettest recorded hurricane in U.S. history. But after the storm passed, where did all that water go?
In a new, NASA-led study, scientists used Global Positioning System (GPS) data to answer that question and to track not…
Among the piping plovers and marsh grasses of New Jersey’s scenic coast, environmentalists and communities are busy creating green infrastructure to shield the shorelines from storm damage while supporting local economies. The Coastal Resilience Collaborative, the New Jersey Resilient Coastlines Initiative, and the NJ Climate Adaptation Allian…
By Kim Steutermann Rogers
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It’s more than just lava
Eruption temperatures can reach 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, plenty hot enough to burn homes and forests to the ground. But even if lava isn’t marching down your street, potentially lethal rates of sulfur dioxide gas may be present up to a half-mile away from the eruption site. Then, there is…
By Jose A. Del Real
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With that urgency in mind, for about 18 months the [Los Angeles Fire Department] has been testing a program developed by the WiFire Lab at the San Diego Supercomputer Center that makes fast predictions about where active fires will spread next. The program, known as FireMap, pulls together real-time information about topograp…
By Laura Hautala
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Programmers have been using software to analyze wildland fires and eventually make projections of where they might spread next, since computers came into existence. But following the fire at Hungry Horse, which was part of the larger Blackfoot Lake Complex Fire, the software programs written by government agencies and priva…