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Texas General Land Office Uses XMap and the Earthmate PN-20 to Help with Hurricane Relief

By xmap

Hurricane_Ike

In the early hours of September 13 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall as a category two storm to the east of Galveston, Texas. In the preceding days, Ike had wreaked havoc on the islands of Hispaniola and Cuba before heading northwest across the Gulf of Mexico. The impact on the coastal areas of Texas and Louisiana was catastrophic with over 100 people losing their lives and an estimated $24 billion in damage.
In preparation for the storm’s imminent landfall, Texas Task Force One, the state emergency response organization comprised of more than 300 emergency personnel from 60 agencies and departments across the state, set up their Command Center in Houston. Among those who responded were GIS specialists from the Texas General Land Office (GLO), who brought with them DeLorme’s XMap software and Earthmate PN-20 GPS receivers.
One of the lessons learned during the response to Hurricane Katrina, which hit Louisiana three years earlier, is the important role played by GIS in such emergency operations. During a disaster, a substantial amount of spatial information is collected, processed, and shared among countless responding agencies. The technology that allows this data to be efficiently managed must not only be sufficiently powerful and capable, but must also be straightforward enough for responders of all skill levels to utilize quickly and effectively. A key benefit that XMap brings to the emergency operations process is that it can be rapidly put to work to help in the recovery effort.
One of the first tasks undertaken by the Information Systems/Business Automation/GIS specialist from the GLO was training other GLO response team members on the use of the PN-20 for simple field data collection. Their job was to quickly create a database of damaged and destroyed properties based on the precise coordinates of each structure. They were also instructed to photograph what remained of each building as a first step in the recovery and rebuilding process.
The significance of GPS in any disaster situation cannot be overstated. The basic process of navigation, which normally depends on visual reference points such as buildings or street signs, is no longer a viable option as many of these features are destroyed during a storm. In order to determine the current location or to navigate to a specific address, a GPS receiver with accurate map information is essential. A GPS receiver that offers the ability to display aerial imagery, such as the PN-20 or its successor, the PN-40, provides even more value in disaster situations as the imagery allows emergency responders to see where buildings or structures originally stood.
For the GLO response teams, the primary function of the PN-20 was to collect the coordinates of each impacted property. Simpler and more accurate than marking a map, a GPS-collected waypoint allows the responder to precisely record and name damage locations with just a few button pushes. In this format, the data collected on the PN-20s was later transferred to XMap and integrated into the GIS database.
A final part of the process involved matching each photograph with the appropriate GPS point so that the actual image could be accessed from the map. This data was later offered for public viewing through an online map service.
After Hurricane Ike recovery the Earthmate PN-20s were deployed to collect location data on the status of oil and gas facilities as well as damaged or sunken vessels along the coast. In preparation for the storm, virtually all oil and gas operations in the impacted area of the gulf had been shut down and secured, however an immediate assessment on the level of damage was critical to mitigate further harm to the natural environment. This data collection effort allowed GIS specialists at the GLO to create maps depicting each location and provided the means for response agencies to efficiently allocate the necessary resources where the need was greatest.
While many would assume full recovery from a major natural disaster such as Hurricane Ike can take years, the appropriate actions taken in the immediate aftermath can greatly hasten the recovery. Much of this effort depends on having the right tools in the hands of the right people at the right time. This was proven in coastal Texas after Ike came ashore, and the rugged and adaptable Earthmate PN-20 lived up to the task.

In the early hours of September 13 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall as a category two storm to the east of Galveston, Texas. In the preceding days, Ike had wreaked havoc on the islands of Hispaniola and Cuba before heading northwest across the Gulf of Mexico. The impact on the coastal areas of Texas and Louisiana was catastrophic with over 100 people losing their lives and an estimated $24 billion in damage.

In preparation for the storm’s imminent landfall, Texas Task Force One, the state emergency response organization comprised of more than 300 emergency personnel from 60 agencies and departments across the state, set up their Command Center in Houston. Among those who responded were GIS specialists from the Texas General Land Office (GLO), who brought with them DeLorme’s XMap software and Earthmate PN-20 GPS receivers.

One of the lessons learned during the response to Hurricane Katrina, which hit Louisiana three years earlier, is the important role played by GIS in such emergency operations. During a disaster, a substantial amount of spatial information is collected, processed, and shared among countless responding agencies. The technology that allows this data to be efficiently managed must not only be sufficiently powerful and capable, but must also be straightforward enough for responders of all skill levels to utilize quickly and effectively. A key benefit that XMap brings to the emergency operations process is that it can be rapidly put to work to help in the recovery effort.

One of the first tasks undertaken by the Information Systems/Business Automation/GIS specialist from the GLO was training other GLO response team members on the use of the PN-20 for simple field data collection. Their job was to quickly create a database of damaged and destroyed properties based on the precise coordinates of each structure. They were also instructed to photograph what remained of each building as a first step in the recovery and rebuilding process.

The significance of GPS in any disaster situation cannot be overstated. The basic process of navigation, which normally depends on visual reference points such as buildings or street signs, is no longer a viable option as many of these features are destroyed during a storm. In order to determine the current location or to navigate to a specific address, a GPS receiver with accurate map information is essential. A GPS receiver that offers the ability to display aerial imagery, such as the PN-20 or its successor, the PN-40, provides even more value in disaster situations as the imagery allows emergency responders to see where buildings or structures originally stood.

For the GLO response teams, the primary function of the PN-20 was to collect the coordinates of each impacted property. Simpler and more accurate than marking a map, a GPS-collected waypoint allows the responder to precisely record and name damage locations with just a few button pushes. In this format, the data collected on the PN-20s was later transferred to XMap and integrated into the GIS database.

A final part of the process involved matching each photograph with the appropriate GPS point so that the actual image could be accessed from the map. This data was later offered for public viewing through an online map service.

PN_HurricaneAfter Hurricane Ike recovery the Earthmate PN-20s were deployed to collect location data on the status of oil and gas facilities as well as damaged or sunken vessels along the coast. In preparation for the storm, virtually all oil and gas operations in the impacted area of the gulf had been shut down and secured, however an immediate assessment on the level of damage was critical to mitigate further harm to the natural environment. This data collection effort allowed GIS specialists at the GLO to create maps depicting each location and provided the means for response agencies to efficiently allocate the necessary resources where the need was greatest.

While many would assume full recovery from a major natural disaster such as Hurricane Ike can take years, the appropriate actions taken in the immediate aftermath can greatly hasten the recovery. Much of this effort depends on having the right tools in the hands of the right people at the right time. This was proven in coastal Texas after Ike came ashore, and the rugged and adaptable Earthmate PN-20 lived up to the task.

For more information on the Texas General Land Office, visit www.glo.state.tx.us.

To read more about the Earthmate PN-Series GPS receivers, click here.

This entry was posted on May 27, 2009 at 12:26 pm and is filed under XMap at Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.