Hurricane Katrina & Rita Maps, Imagery, weblogs, and more for the GIS user
Written by Glenn Letham (GISuser editor)
Thursday, 01 September 2005
The GIS & Geospatial user community has responded in a big way to the recovery and clean-up efforts of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. In an effort to help keep you informed, we've compiled some areas of interest to the GISuser and will update this page as needed. You'll find useful pointers to satellite imagery and gis data, details of our expanded map/photoblog, and a complete archive of relevant news items and other important announcements.
Satellite Imagery, GIS data sources, & Image Archives - if you require data or imagery these are some fine resources and portals available for your use.
ESRI Hurricane Katrina Viewer - The viewer shows a variety of data and imagery for the affected areas and the southeastern U.S.
ESRI Data & Resources - loads of pointers to maps, GIS data, and more that is useful in GIS work for the affected areas
USGS Imagery - Before and after satellite imagery of Biloxi, MS and New Orleans, LA
USGS - Hurricane Katrina Photographs August 30, 2005
Google Earth KMLs - The Google Earth team is working on adding imagery of the impact of Hurricane Katrina. We will be posting links to this imagery for viewing as "image overlays" in Google Earth
NOAA - more than 350 images (aerial photos) collected along the Gulf Coast - post-Katrina
Space Imaging - Some imagery of Mobile, Alabama captured August 30, 2005
GlobeXplorer - before and after imagery from Boloxi, MS and New Orleans LA
Louisiana Atlas - Loads of GIS data products including some 1500 new DOQQs (added July 2005)
The Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS), a Division of the Texas Water Development Board, is the state's clearinghouse for maps, aerial photos, and digital natural resources data. TNRIS also serves as a distribution center for U.S. Geological Survey maps and has numerous other map collections available for in-house use or reproduction.
LAGIC was established by the Louisiana GIS Council (LGISC) and the Louisiana Office of E-Services to facilitate the distribution of geographic information, provide technical assistance, and support GIS data development among state, federal, and local government.
ESRI's Hurricane Katrina Web Mapping App - A new Web app, the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Viewer, is now available from ESRI to provide detailed information about areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The site allows the public, emergency responders, relief organizations, and others to locate an address or zoom to areas of interest and view areas declared "damaged" by FEMA, affected delivery areas for the U.S.
Feature Article - GIS and GISCorps Respond to Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi - Talbot J. Brooks, Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Technologies, Delta State University worked within MEMA, FEMA, and the rest of the alphabet soup to start GIS at the Jackson Emergency Operations Center. According to Brooks, the GISCorps call for help came at his request. He has graciously shared his story of Hurricane Katrina, the role GIS played in the response, and the 27 August - 6 September time period.... in his words... he was "there". Read on for a look at the response, some Q & A's, and example maps and images from the URISA GIScorps in Mississippi.
GIS / Geospatial News & PR Announcements relating to hurricane response, rescue, and recovery
Many companies have issued PR about their response. Lizardtech has no official news, however, like many other companies in our industry, they have responded.
LizardTech has donated licenses of its GeoExpress with MrSID® software to agencies involved in ongoing relief efforts in New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation. These agencies are using GeoExpress to convert massive datasets from raw format to LizardTech’s industry standard MrSID format in support of other agencies that require analysis or survey of areas within the region affected by the disaster. In assisting ATMOS Energy Louisiana, GE Energy acquired approximately a terabyte (a thousand gigabytes) of georeferenced aerial imagery of the region, which it is rushing to convert to MrSID format so that it can be viewed in conjunction with New Orleans’ utility and infrastructure data, which in turn will enable ATMOS to efficiently run valve isolation on its gas mains. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is using GeoExpress to compress satellite imagery from various commercial and military sources so that it can be used in GIS applications on laptops and other mobile devices in the field for "before and after" analysis of the affected areas.
Using our flickr account, we've been storing a number of useful maps, imagery, graphs, and other scenes of interest. Many have pointers to additional data and information. This resource has seen huge traffic and has been constantly growing. We hope you find it useful.
Some maps and images of interest:
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)
This image was created using Google Earth's 3D perspective tilt. The hack was linked from www.googleearthhacks.com. It shows imagery and flooding around the dome on imagery from NOLA.
Map of the Louisiana petroleum resources (submitted by site user)
Market Researchers from Companies Nationwide to Meet in Austin to Gain and Share Innovative Demographic Insight
Featured Events
International LIDAR Mapping Forum - The ILMF is the premier event for the LIDAR industry attracting professionals from all over the world with the next event scheduled for January 26 – 28, 2009 in New Orleans, USA.
Join 8,000 geographers, GIS specialists, and environmental scientists for the latest in research, policy, and applications in geography, sustainability, and GIScience during the AAG Annual Meeting in Las Vegas to be held March 22-27, 2009.
If you've created a map, have a useful data resource to share, of simply want to share some information, please 
