| Weather Data Fused with GIS in Real-time Automates Decision Support for Government and Industry
By John Thompson, Keith Ward, and Carlene Neeley FACT:
Each year, U.S. industry suffers approximately $34.5 billion in losses related to severe weather. The key industrial sectors affected are agriculture, commercial aviation, construction, communications, electric utilities, manufacturing, and transportation. A study funded by the National Weather Service (NWS) Modernization Program has determined that $14.5 billion of those losses could have been prevented if emergency response managers, operations managers, disaster mitigation teams, and other key decision-makers had tools in place to accurately determine and forecast the effects of severe weather on their specific assets or geographic areas of responsibility. PROPOSITION:
What if there was an automated solution available to aid these decision makers in all phases of disaster management, including event monitoring, preparation, assessment, and restoration? And, would such a solution be more valuable if it was built on the decision makers' own GIS database in a user interface easily understood by a non-meteorologist? SOLUTION:
Litton/PRC and Intergraph have entered into a strategic alliance to provide GeoWeather Solutions, the first integration of real-time digital weather data with assets mapped in commercial off-the-shelf GIS applications to produce the world's first weather-enabled decision support system. The Current State of Weather-related Decision Support
Every year, inclement or severe weather dramatically affects both government and industry, causing a tremendous amount of damage to both lives and property. Because weather prediction is an inexact science, determining the impact of weather on lives, property, and business is always a challenge.
The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) is modernizing its technology by integrating data from multiple sources, including weather satellites, Doppler radar, surface observations, and sophisticated map-based computer modeling techniques. This modernization will provide improved weather forecasts and more accurate and timely warnings to asset management, command, and control personnel. However, improving forecasts is only half the battle. Personnel responsible for predicting the impact of weather on critical assets-such as roads, bridges, generators, substations, emergency response teams, utility work crews, etc.-need to base their critical decisions on more than a forecast.
With existing technology, decision-makers must assimilate forecast data and "mentally" superimpose it on their maps, assets, or GIS infrastructure data. Unfortunately, weather data that is currently available - television-based weather channel information - provides a much broader picture than is helpful in evaluating how specific assets will be affected by current or impending weather. For precise and timely analysis and subsequent decisions, decision-makers need a much smaller view of their world, a view made possible by a system that alerts them to conditions that are about to invade a specific, predetermined "buffer zone" around particular assets. To complete the decision process, personnel must be notified and mitigation activities must be triggered. The Future of Weather-related Decision Support
Litton/PRC and Intergraph are combining the innovative methods of the NWS with the power of GIS to create weather-enabled decision support system. GeoWeather Solutions applies real-time weather information in a GIS environment, helping decision makers with such mission-critical activities as planning, asset management, dispatch, routing, and daily operations. GeoWeather Solutions receives the same weather data in real-time that is supplied to the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS), a network of 2,500 computers located at 135 geographic locations throughout the 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Guam. High-resolution weather data is incorporated from the GOES weather satellites, NEXRAD Doppler radar, NCEP super-computer forecast models, and ASOS surface observations.
Using state-of-the-art GIS technology that maps critical assets, GeoWeather Solutions will analyze these real-time weather data feeds, assess critical weather events, and initiate specified actions, even automated responses-all in a visual 2D graphical interface. During hazardous weather, using event triggers, this system enables seamless coordination of operations with vendors, contractors, and government agencies. Each integrated solution fuses data from various sources into a single decision-support system that can easily be used by meteorologists and non-meteorologists alike. GeoWeather Solutions provides monitoring, preparation, assessment, and restoration capabilities within a specific weather-related application.
GeoWeather Solutions generates accurate and timely reports and alerts for a wide range of weather events that impact operations. The initial release in the first quarter of 2000, includes the following Nowcast events such as: lightning strikes; extreme temperature; high winds; heavy rains and flash floods; severe thunderstorms; snow, sleet, hail, and ice; and other critical weather conditions.
Future releases will encompass mid- and long-term forecast data, gridded weather data models, as well as complete 3D visualization and simulation which are capabilities critical for mission planning and rehearsal.
GeoWeather Solutions supports all four phases of the weather decision-support cycle. In the monitoring phase, users define which weather events are monitored and what actions are triggered by the occurrence of a weather event that meets the specified criteria. Using their own GIS data, decision-makers define an area of interest for the weather event. This might be a county, a rectangular area that spans all assets of interest, or a buffer zone around a particular asset, for example, a three-mile buffer around an airport refueling zone. The weather criteria are then set for the selected area of interest. This involves specifying the type of weather event (such as issued warnings or weather observations, or the occurrence of lightning) and configuring the criteria for that event type. Examples of weather event criteria include:
¥ Severe thunderstorm warnings
¥ Flash flood watches
¥ Temperatures less than 32 degrees Fahrenheit and winds greater than 20 mph from the northwest with freezing rain.
Users also specify the notifications that sould occur when an event meets the criteria. This always includes a pop-up message on the Geo Weather Executive Workstation and could also include such actions as paging a supervisor, faxing the field office, or e-mailing the dispatchers.
Users also specify the notifications that should occur when an event meets the criteria. This always includes a pop-up message on the GeoWeather Executive Workstation and could also include such actions as paging a supervisor, faxing the field office, or e-mailing the dispatchers.
Response to the notifications from GeoWeather Solutions moves the system into the preparation phase of the decision support cycle. Here, the decision-maker can use the GIS data to help determine the best response to prepare for the weather event.
Standard GIS analysis tools can also support the assessment and restoration phases of the cycle by allowing weather-specific data to be combined with GIS information. In one Kansas tornado, the GIS data indicating the locations of residences in the area of a tornado was superimposed on an aerial photograph showing the resultant damage. A buffer zone was created, centered on the track of the tornado. A query was used to identify and re-symbolize the parcels inside this buffer. The combination of a data window and the GIS data originally used allows quick capture of information related to the extent of the damage. Of course, throughout the other phases of the cycle, monitoring the defined weather events continues so that additional weather impact can also be mitigated. The Litton/PRC and Intergraph Team-Partners in Weather Preparedness
The Litton/PRC and Intergraph team is bringing together digital weather data and GIS for asset management to produce the world's first weather-enabled decision-support system. Each corporate entity brings highly focused expertise to this technology partnership.
As the prime contractor for the Automated Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS), PRC is uniquely positioned to contribute weather expertise to this solution. AWIPS is the integrating element of the National Weather Service Modernization Program, which was completely deployed in July 1999. As prime contractor, PRC has both access to the weather data and a detailed knowledge of all of the processing algorithms. Intergraph is uniquely positioned to contribute the industry-leading open GIS tool set and extensive domain expertise.
Intergraph's GeoMedia Professional software provides the perfect foundation for this solution because it can read and process geospatial data from essentially any source, including most of the existing GIS software already deployed and utilized by end-users (such as ArcInfo, ArcView, MapInfo, and AutoCAD. With this truly open GIS platform, data from other sources can be readily incorporated for use in GeoWeather Solutions. About the Authors:
John Thompson represents Intergraph Federal Systems, Government Solutions Division, as Business Development Manager for GeoWeather Solutions. He can be reached at 703-264-5710 or via e-mail at j[email protected]. Keith Ward represents Litton/PRC where he is the General Manager of the Environmental Decision Support Group. He can be reached at 703-556-2315 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Dr. Carlene Neeley represents Intergraph Federal Systems, Government Solutions Division, as Program Manager for GeoWeather Solutions. She can be reached at 256-730-1627 or via e-mail at c[email protected]. Back |
