December 6, 2012
November 30, 2012
100-Year Flood in 3-D View
This is a
3-D view of a 100-year flood in downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin. A 100-year
flood for Eau Claire is defined by FEMA as having a 780-foot flood line. Here
you can see that several UW-Eau Claire buildings, shown in red, that would be
flooded.
To show
this in a 3-D view a program called ArcScene was used. First, the base height
of the digital elevation model (DEM), the black and white surface, of Eau
Claire was set to floating on a custom surface of the DEM, which allowed it be
in 3-D. Then, the UWEC buildings layer base height was also set to the DEM with
an offset on the bottom of 5; this lifts the buildings 5ft off the ground so
they are more noticeable. Next, the buildings were extruded by their height
value which raised them to that value; this allows you to see the height or
stories of each building. Finally, the 100-year flood layer, the blue color,
was brought in. This allows us to examine what areas would be flooded in a more
life-like view, due to the 3-D.
November 21, 2012
November 19, 2012
November 15, 2012
November 12, 2012
Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of Mt Rainier
This image is a digital elevation model (DEM) of Mt Rainier. A DEM is a raster-based digital cartographic/geographic dataset of elevations in xyz coordinates. DEM's can be represented in 3D form, however this DEM isn't. This DEM represents high and low values with a continous color pattern between black and white. Areas that are white represent high values, like the top of the mountain or bluffs, and areas that are black represent low values, like valleys.
3D Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of Mt Rainier
This is a DEM image of Mt Rainier in 3D form. This 3D image was produced form the black and white DEM image above. This was done by applying a base height, changing the color to a different, more effective color ramp, and applying a shade effect to it. The 3D image is much more visually appealing when looking a surface elevation.
Triangular Irregular Network (TIN) of Mt Rainier
This image is a Triangular Irregular Network (TIN) of Mt. Rainier. A TIN is a vector- based representation of the Earth's surface. A TIN is made up of irregularly distributed nodes and lines with 3D coordinates that are arranged in a network of nonoverlapping triangles. TIN's are often derived from elevation data of DEM's that are rasterized.
3D Digital Elevation Model of Mt Rainier with Land Cover and Lahar Imagery
This image represent land cover and a lahar flow on Mt Rainier. The land cover shows white snow on top of the mountain, a pinkish color towards the bottom half of the moutain which is rock, and grass to dense forest cover with the different shades of green on the ground around the mountain. The brown color flowing from the top of the mountain through the valley's illustrates the flow of the lahar. This image illustrates that lahars have a tendency of having a larger accumulation of mudflow flowing down the steeper side of the mountain and through valley's. It also illustrates that they are stong enough to flow through areaas covered in dense forest. This image would be an example of the behavioral paradigm and would be beneficial to use to for risk assessment.
November 8, 2012
October 29, 2012
This map illustrates that areas where PGA is high is where
building damage is high and also where clusters of stations are located.
These maps illustrate the relationship between building damage and geological
factors. It shows the amount of buildings damage that took place due to soil
liquefaction. After analyzing the maps we can see where the earthquake took
place, how may buildings were damaged in relation to the earthquake, and the
amount/type of damage that happen to those buildings. With that we also assess
the the geology of the area using soil liquefaction. Soil liquefaction is the
process by which water-saturation material can temporarily lose strength and
behave as a fluid because of strong shaking. This process can cause structural
damage to buildings and at times cause them to tip over. This map shows us
how buildings were affected due to the degree of soil liquefaction that took
place in those areas.
October 25, 2012
October 22, 2012
Foley Et Al. 2011, Monfreda Et Al. 2008. “Current Crop
Yields.” Updated 6/25/2012.
These maps represent drought and crop yield in North
America for 2012. The relationship they express in comparison with one
another is that crops are producing lower yields in the midwest which is known
for high crop production. This area is also the region that is experiencing
moderate to severe drought. Crop production is higher in areas experiencing
less severe or no drought.
October 1, 2012
This
image represents locations of pate boundaries, earthquakes, and tsunamis. This
data is valuable in understanding the behavior of Earth’s natural processes and
certain natural hazards that are caused because of them. With this data we are able to understand
effects these natural hazards have on the environment and the people around
them. With this data mitigation strategies can be implemented in order to keep
people and communities safe. It can also be useful in understanding what humans
can do to help prevent a hazard from turning into a disaster. September 19, 2012
This
map illustrates an “engineering paradigm” approach for mitigation processes. An
engineering paradigm uses science and technology to attempt to lessen the
effects of hazards before they occur. It uses earth science and civil
engineering to increase effective structural responses designed to control the
damaging effects of certain physical processes. For example, the image above
shows locations of volcanoes in the western US. This allows us to see where
volcanic prone areas are; here we can see they are near tectonic plates and
mountain ranges. From that we are able to determine where to settle and how to
build more sustainable structures to withstand this type of event. It also
allows for appropriate weather forecasting strategies that will intern allow for
appropriate warnings to the communities when a volcano may
erupt.
To
take the “complexity paradigm” approach a combination of paradigm approaches
need to be used in conjunction with one another. This involves understanding how
humans and nature coexist and that humans are only victims to hazards but that
human actions contribute to hazards and their outcomes. It involves
understanding the how disaster impacts can be reduced in a sustainable way in
the future, especially for the poorest people in a rapidly changing world.
Additional data that would be useful in assisting this approach could include
the magnitude of previous volcanic eruptions in this area, weather information,
ocean tide/current data, as well as population and census
data.
September 12, 2012
For this exercise we were instructed to play games on a website called Stop Disasters. This website is administered by the ISDR, (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction). The strategy of the ISDR is to bring together many organizations, universities, and institutions for the common objective of reducing the number of dead and injured by disasters triggered by natural hazards. The ISDR differentiates natural hazards from disasters by explaining that hazards don’t need to become disasters if proper planning and precautions are taken. For example, a volcano erupting with no one around is only a natural hazard; whereas, if there were people living around the volcano who were affected or killed then it becomes a hazard. The purpose of the on-line game on disaster risk reduction is to educate children, who are one the most vulnerable groups when disasters occur, about reducing the risks of disasters. It aims to teach children how to build safer villages and cities against disasters.
The purpose of these games is to employ mitigation strategies to save as many lives and provide shelter to as many people as possible while only spending within the $50,000.00 budget. While employing these strategies and staying within our budget we had to build at least 2 hotels, one hospital, and one school.
The first 3 pictures show mitigation strategies for a tsunami:
The first image (above) shows mitigation strategies of concrete houses between the ocean and hotel cabins and bamboo huts. The purpose of this is to block the hotel cabins and bamboo huts from the tsunami as concrete houses provide the best form of protection to its residents. The reason they are a great form of protection is because of their deep foundations and flow-through design which increases their likelihood of surviving high waves or floods.
Extra trees were planted as they are one of the cheapest and easiest ways to develop natural tsunami protection.
Also, large rocks are left located between the ocean and the
municipal as protection.
The second image (above) illustrates mitigation strategies of
placing sand dunes on the beach. Although they may not prevent flooding they
may dissipate much of the wave’s power before it can reach inland.
Mangroves are also placed in shallow water along the coast.
These are beneficial because they provide local communities with food resources
and economic income. They can also help protect offshore coral reefs from silt
by lowing water run-off from the land. Coral reefs are important because they
also provide natural protection from tsunamis by acting as effective
breakwaters. They also provide homes to many fish and other types of food. The
destruction of reefs is devastating as it has negative effect on fishing,
tourism, and the protection of the coastline.
Concrete breakwaters were placed to protect the bay against
large waves. They act similar to the reefs.
You will also notice more concrete houses that are built
between the ocean and the municipal (the importance of these is explained for
image one). These were placed for extra protection to huts whose strength is
not built to withstand the power from a tsunami. They are also placed to
protect buildings of extreme importance that are located more inland. These
buildings include the hospital, school, and community center. They are all
important as they provide a meeting area and shelter for people after a natural
hazard. Schools are also used to educate people about hazards and disasters and
hospitals are used to give care to people injured from the form the incident.
Again, more trees were planted as cheap, natural protection.
The third image (above) illustrates the coastline protection
of large rocks, sand dunes, mangroves, and concrete breakwaters.
Although it is not visible a seismic sensor was placed in
deep water to detect seismic waves. This is useful as it alerts people up to hours
before the tsunami reaches a location. They are part of an early warning system
which helps save lives.
Next we were asked to try to kill as many people as possible
and cause as much damage as possible:
Next we were asked to try to kill as many people as possible and cause as much damage as possible:
The above image shows the ocean without the reef that was
originally there. I removed both sets of reefs since they act as natural breakwaters
during a tsunami. This will also affect the community in a negative way because
after this hazard, which will now be a disaster, takes place there will be no
habitat for fish and other food sources. It will also have a negative effect on
the community once it tries to rebuild because there will be a negative impact
of fishing and tourism.
In the image above you will notice that all the original
huts, cabins, and cement houses have been destroyed, as well as all of the
mangroves. I did this so there would be no shelter for people during the
hazard, as well any extra food resources and economic income following the
event.
No comments:
Post a Comment