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GIS Database Developed for New York WTC Recovery Efforts
By GeoCommunity Staff, Oct. 4, 2001
A recent article in the New York Times addressed the role that GIS has played in the recent disaster recovery
efforts in New York. What I got out of the article was an interesting time-line of the development of a GIS-based tool being used in the recovery efforts.
The National Urban Search and Rescue Response System, established by FEMA was given the assignment of providing task force leaders with data concerning potential hazards. The following is a time-line showing the development of the rescue effort's GIS database:
- no GIS equipment or staff available for 4 days due to airport closures
- map of unstable building crudely drawn on a shopping guide
- copies made and distributed to rescue crews
- 4 GIS workstations and workers arrive
- maps created depicting locations of command posts, first aid centers, food stations, fires and other hazards
- debris on ground is tracked and catalogued
- daily aerial photography using heat sensing camera is created
- "hot spots" identified and overlayed with maps of underground fuel tanks
- location of rescue efforts often based on the resiults
- GPS use is limited due to surrounding buildings and other interference with signals
- rescue effort locations plotted using a grid
Coordinators of the rescue efforts have agreed that GIS has been crucial in
putting together a plan. Benefits include ease of use, development of an organized and
available archive. When the GIS database has been completed the database will be turned over
to the Fire Department.
FEMA has created a New York GIS archive on their website. Users will find maps and images created by the FEMA
project team. Maps posted on the site include NY county maps, Manhattan 3D images, Debris Fields, and numerous other
images. New York
The original article can be found at New York Times
New York Data Providers
Community Cartography - The Subscription Mapping Service and Data Warehouse
for the New York Metropolitan Region
Census Bureau, New York Regional Office
Cornell University Geospatial Data Clearinghouse
New York Census Profiles
NY State DOT GIS Department
New York Spatial Data Clearinghouse
New York GIS Data Clearinghouse
Free New York GIS Data at GISDataDepot
GIS at the Adirondack Park Agency
Long Island GIS User Group
National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
NYS Office of Real Property Services GIS
New York Geology Resource Page
New York State Metadata Repository
USGS Digital Data Status for New York
New York State Website
USGS in New York
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