GIS, Maps, Geo and Location Technology by @gletham
An interesting read via the latest edition of LiDAR Magazine looks at FEMA and their history and affinity with LiDAR data. From the article by David Maune… In 1994, Brigadier General Gerald E. Galloway chaired the Interagency Floodplain Management Review Committee following the devastating floods of 1993.
For those of you interested in monitoring not only the flood waters in Colorado but also for any location there’s some very useful resources available from the USGS to keep in mind. First and foremost, there’s the USGS Colorado Water Science Center webpage, packed with useful data, information, and web services, see http://co.water.usgs.gov/index.html
And for those of you interested in monitoring a specific location there’s a handy resource that enables you to set some parameters to determine when you will receive alerts either via text or email – enter the USGS water alert system. see stream guage data and water levels for any station and establish a text alert notification for a set threshold – http://water.usgs.gov/wateralert/
An update from FEMA this week… Nation-wide preliminary flood hazard data (preliminary data) issued after April 1, 2013 will be available in one centralized web address, along with effective data. Preliminary data provide an early look at your home or community’s risk to flood hazards. According to FEMA there are many benefits to viewing these data, for more information – Beginning in April 2013, you can access preliminary data directly or go to FEMA’s Map Service Center (MSC) website.
Amazing that already we’re headed into September and with that another hurricane season is upon us (I’ve always been somewhat of a hurricane tracker since my days living on the Gulf Coast). Hard to believe that it’s been 7 years since Hurricanes Katrina And Rita and get this, during that time FEMA has spent some $19 billion in rebuilding and recovery in Louisiana State. This financial update has been provide by FEMA.
To assist in rebuilding disaster-damaged public infrastructure, FEMA’s Public Assistance Program has provided approximately $11.5 billion for the restoration of roughly 23,669 Katrina and Rita recovery projects throughout Louisiana. Such FEMA aid has enabled significant impacts across various public sectors, including approximately:
For more info see the seventh anniversary of hurricanes Katrina and Rita: www.fema.gov/la7year .
See also Hurricane Katrina & Rita Maps, Imagery, weblogs, and more
This image is worth 1,000 words! Vertical profile shows where the city of New Orleans is positioned relative to Lake Ponchaltrain and the Mississippi River (Source: flhurricane.com)
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency today released Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 Application Guidance for 14 federal grant programs, totaling more than $3 billion available in federal funding to assist state and local governments in strengthening community preparedness. More than $27 billion has been provided since 2002 to strengthen our nation’s ability to prevent, protect, respond and recover from terrorist attacks, major disasters or other emergencies. See details
The Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC) provides a wide range of Geographic Information System (GIS) support to the State of Utah. AGRC strives to facilitate coordination among Utah GIS users and effective, efficient use of GIS resources. Available data products for download include DRG, DEM, DOQ, NED, FEMA data and much more. See
http://agrc.its.state.ut.us/
Free ftp download of Q3 flood data, DFIRM, and county flood themes – see ftp server at ftp://ftp.wvgis.wvu.edu/pub/Clearinghouse/water_resources/Q3_Flood/
MassGIS data contains pretty much any GIS dataset for Massachusettes that you could need. Conveniently organized by either raster of vector datasets you can spend hours here! ESRI Shapefiles, tiled by Town, USGS Quad, OQ Quad, Basin, Watershed, State, NE. See http://www.mass.gov/mgis/download.htm or http://www.mass.gov/mgis/ftpstate.htm
