Social and economic hydrologic riSk factorS in the coaStal zone.Population and economic trends (Bin and Kruse 2006) in coastal counties have tremendous implications for how these areas respond to and recover from natural and man-made hazards, particularly those of a hydrologic/hydrodynamic nature (Willigen et al. 2005). Floods affect the entire spectrum of regional activities, from the morning commute to agribusiness to community decision making. As businesses expand into areas prone to storm surge, more drivers are vulnerable to floods as they navigate vehicles across low-lying coastal
Abstract. Collaborative technologies for information sharing are an invaluable resource for emergency managers to respond to and manage highly dynamic events such as natural disasters and other emergencies. However, many standard collaboration tools can be limited either because they provide passive presentation and dissemination of information, or because they are targeted towards highly specific usage scenarios that require considerable training to use the tools. We present a realtime gather and share system called "Big Board" which facilitates collaboration over maps. The Big Board is an open-source, web based, real time visual collaborative environment that runs on all modern web browsers and uses open-source web standards developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and WorldWideWeb Consortium (W3C). An evaluation of Big Board was conducted by school representatives in North Carolina for use in situational understanding for school closure decisions during winter weather events. The decision to close schools has major societal impacts and is one that is usually made based on how well a teenage driver could handle wintry precipitation on a road. Collecting information on the conditions of roads is especially critical, however gathering and sharing of this information within a county can be difficult. Participants in the study found the Big Board intuitive and useful for sharing real time information, such as road conditions and temperatures, leading up to and during a winter storm scenario. We have adapted the Big Board to manage risks and hazards during other types of emergencies such as tropical storm conditions.
ABSTRACT:The use of weather forecasts for emergency management decision-making requires that those making decisions have access to information they can understand and can put into operation in a timely manner. This can create a gap between what emergency management decision-makers need and what is available. Using school decision-making under conditions of severe winter weather in North Carolina as a case study, this project traces decision-making processes and use of weather information to identify the nature of these gaps and to test prototypes that might fill those gaps. A mixed methods approach including focus groups, interviews and surveys provided an evaluation of the critical decisions and specific information needs of this group of decision-makers. All these methods collect information from a variety of sources, including on-line forecasts, conversations with other school districts and riding the roads to check conditions. The findings suggest that some of the needed forecast information is available, but is either misinterpreted or school officials were not aware of its existence. Location-specific and time-sensitive information is crucial. By delving into the decision-making processes, including needs and networks, and by developing prototypes to address the needs, the results provide a step in the direction of enhancing the infusion of weather and climate information into severe weather decision processes.
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