**Session 15**

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# Course Title: Hazard Mapping and Modeling

**Session 15: The Geographic Connection in Hazards**

**Prepared By: Andrew Curtis, Assistant Professor, Department of
Geography & Anthropology, Louisiana State University Baton Rouge.**

## Time: 3 hrs 

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**Session Goal: This session will provide an overview of how geography /
space is important in all Hazards by using examples drawn from all
sessions in the course.**

**Objectives:**

**15.1. Examine how hazards have both spatial and temporal dimensions**

**15.2. Stress that Hazard Maps Shown in the Different Sessions Came in
all Shapes and Sizes**

**15.3 The Future Role of the Internet**

**15.4 What Data Sets are Important?**

**15.5 Where Does Skill and Specialty Come in?**

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**Overall Goal: This course is to contribute to the reduction of the
growing toll (deaths and injuries, property loss, environmental
degradation, etc.) of disasters in the United States by providing an
understanding of the significant role of mapping and modeling in the
management of hazards.**

**Session Goal: Students as a result of this session will be able to
draw on the previous sessions on this course to see the relationships
between mapping and modeling and how these tools contribute to emergency
management. Students will also see the role of the Internet in mapping
and the importance of identifying sources of mapping and modeling
data.**

**Scope:**

The instructor will ask the students to form teams at the beginning of
this session. Each group will designate a *group leader* who will be
expected to report back to the rest of the group at the end of the
session. This session will bring the core of all sessions together by
emphasizing the role that geography or space plays in understanding and
responding to hazards. For each section of this capstone session, the
group will be expected to draw from examples presented in the other
sessions.

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**General Readings:**

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**General Requirements:**

Power Point slides are provided for the instructor's use.

The instructor's course syllabus should be distributed to the students
following the instructor and student introductions.

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**Requirements:**

Use the PowerPoint slides provided. Proposed questions are suggested to
stimulate group discussion. By the end of this session students should
understand how geography provides the connection between the different
hazards presented in the sessions of this course. Students should be
able to draw multiple examples from different sessions to answer each of
the questions posed. By the end of this session students should be able
to suggest how an "all-hazards" approach can be become functional.

Stress that an "all-hazards" theme is critical in understanding hazards
and disaster management. Students should reflect on the class as a
whole, and modify this learning into a holistic understanding of
geography, hazards, and modeling. The connection between these different
hazards is the geography of a hazard.

At the beginning of this session the instructor should ask the students
to briefly summarize what each has learned so far, and what he/she
believes is the connection between these hazards.

Explain that the purpose of this session is to bring together all that
the students have learned into a summary session.

Students will be broken into groups of no more than four.

The Instructor will explain that the questions asked through this
session should be collated into one group response. These answers should
also be used to formulate a group response to the final Capstone
question that will be presented to the other groups.

**The instructor will then explain that the questions asked of each
group**

**Student Discussion / Assessment**:

The students will be asked, one by one, to talk about their background,
what each has learnt from the course, what their favorite session was,
and how each thinks the sessions are connected.

**Remarks:**

**Objective 1. Examine how hazards have both a spatial and temporal
dimension.**

**I.** Mapping hazards means there is geography involved.

> A. For any hazard there is both a spatial and temporal dimension.

1.  The spatial dimension has various scales (local to international)
    depending on what the hazard is.

2.  The temporal dimension also has multiple scales (minutes to months)

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B.  Remind the students that Presidential Directive #8 requires an all
    hazard approach (see Slide 1).

    1.  The characterization of different hazards requires different
        views of a spatial area.

    2.  Mapping a hazard utilizes many different data sets and types of
        mapping data

> a\. Photographs
>
> b\. USGS Quad sheets showing graphic representation of areas
>
> c\. Vector representations of roads (lines), buildings (points) and
> county or city boundaries (polygons)

Question: Ask the students to look at the four maps shown on Slide 2,
what would be the spatial and temporal dimensions for each of these?

> C. Geography is important in all aspects of hazard preparedness and
> response (see Slide 3)
>
> 1\. The geography of an area makes it vulnerable to a hazard. By
> seeing these vulnerabilities mitigation strategies can be devised
>
> 2\. The geography of an area impacts the way a hazard develops after
> it has begun
>
> 3\. The geography of an area will impact the way that response
> strategies are devised and implemented
>
> 4\. The geography of an area will help create the post-hazard
> landscape both in the short and long term.

Question: Ask the students to recall examples from previous sessions for
sections c-f.

C. "Geography" can be broadly split into three areas (see Slide 4).

> 1\. Physical features; such as the elevation above sea level, the
> shape of valley, the location of a fault.
>
> 2\. Social landscapes; who lives where. What are the cohort
> characteristics? Where are vulnerable populations located? Does the
> population have transport?
>
> 3\. Infrastructure features; how easy would it be to evacuate a
> population given the road system? Where are possible shelters? Are
> there any facilities that are particularly vulnerable?

Question: Ask the students to pick three hazards and describe how these
three "geographic" components interact for each.

**Objective 2. Stress that Hazard Maps Shown in the Different Sessions
Came in all Shapes and Sizes.**

I. Why are **Different Maps** made for Different Hazards?

A. Who is the **Map Audience** (see Slides 5 & 6)?

> 1\. For most hazards maps may be created for different audiences. A
> map designed for hazard mitigation might be aimed at the public. Maps
> created for response (usually as a software output), might be aimed
> only for the EOC.
>
> 2\. A map created to display risk or vulnerability would be different
> from a real-time response map.

Question: Ask the students to remember back to the previous sessions and
explain what would be the key differences between maps made for the
public, and maps used in an EOC

B. What are the General Types of **Software** Used to Make Hazard Maps
(see Slide 7)?

> 1\. All maps created for Hazards will be the output of a computer
> software package. Some of these packages are designed for specific
> hazards. Other systems such as a GIS offer the flexibility to handle
> any hazard.
>
> 2\. Most of these systems can be used by an EOC as a response tool
> during the event itself.

Question: Ask the students to remember back to the previous sessions and
give examples of different specialized packages (see Slide 8).

Question: Ask the students what would an EOC typically need in order to
run one of these software systems

Question: Ask the students to identify what the similarities are in
these systems in terms of functionality and output.

C. Why do we need **Hazard Maps** (see Slide 9)?

> 1\. A Hazard map may be created to identify geographic areas of
> vulnerability.
>
> 2\. A GIS may create dynamic continually updated maps that act as the
> central information processing center of an EOC
>
> 3\. A Hazard map might predict how an event will continue to develop /
> spread
>
> 4\. A Hazard map might be used to identify who is being impacted and
> how to provide for them.

Question: Using the maps provided in Slide 10, as well as what can be
remembered from previous sessions, ask the students to provide examples
for e to h.

D. Who **Uses** these Maps (see Slide 11)?

> 1\. The **EOC** can gain a first look at a developing hazard (Slide
> 12)
>
> 2\. A **responder** might need to spatial information in the field

Question: Ask the students to provide examples from four different
hazards for both i and j. Also ask the students how the maps created
would vary between the EOC and a responder.

**Objective 3. Explore the Future Role of the Internet in mapping and
modeling hazards.**

I. The **Internet** is likely to play an important part of any EOC, both
before and during a **Hazard**.

II\. New **non-specialist applications**, such as that presented in
Slide 13, now allow responders to upload information onto an Internet
site housed at a central command (EOC).

> A. At this **command center**, the information can be processed,
> analyzed and displayed on a map viewable on the Internet in real time.
>
> B. The **responder** uploads information with coordinates, and then
> can see that information almost immediately on a map.

Question: Ask the students to provide examples of how the Internet would
be used in a traditional EOC.

Question: Ask the students to consider and provide three different
hazard examples of where this would be beneficial.

**Objective 4. Review what Data Sets have been important to mapping and
modeling hazards.**

**I.** Irrespective of what **Hazard software** application is chosen,
or what model is run, data is needed as input.

**II.** Some **data** is readily available. Other datasets need to be
generated with a specific hazard in mind (see Slide 14).

> A. The **EOC** must also have the ability to collect data during a
> hazard to update and validate models, and deploy efficient response
> measures.

**III.** Data is needed for **mitigation, response and** recovery.

Question: Ask the students to provide three examples of data (and their
source) that would be common for three different hazards (see Slide 15).

Question: Ask the students to provide three typical examples of data
(and their source) that would be specific for three different hazards.

Question: Ask the students to describe how data would be collected
during a Hazard event (see Slide 16).

**Objective 5. Explore where Skill and Specialty come in for mapping and
modeling hazards.**

**I.** A Hazard software **output** might be a map of impacted
population.

> A. Yet the map on which this population is displayed will show
> **different areas of concern** depending on the map boundaries chosen.
> In this case, the skill of a cartographer, geographer or GIS scientist
> is needed (see Slide 17).

**II.** A Hazard model run by a geographer or GIS scientist might
produce **areas of concern, or footprints of risk,** but the inputs
might not have been correctly entered due to a limited understanding of
the physics involved.

**Question:** **Ask the students to provide four other examples taken
from the sessions where non-specialized "mistakes" could be made in
terms of map generation or map interpretation in an EOC.**

***The instructor now instructs the students to do the following:***

***Using the answers to all the previous questions, and any other
information you think is important from the previous sessions, answer
the following:***

**Questions:**

***With respect to the "All-hazards" response approach, how would you
structure the mapping and modeling section of an EOC for mitigation,
response and recovery?***

***Draw a diagram of what would be included and how it components would
work together.***

***Provide examples of two hazards to show how the system would be
flexible enough to cope.***

***Which personnel would you have permanently in place (both at the EOC
and in the field), and which additional staff would you draft in for
specific hazards?***