M6 - Damage Assessment

Module 6 like Module 5 still deals with Hurricane Sandy and its effects and damages. This week we focused on creating a map to show Sandy's track points and path from the Atlantic over to the Gulf coast, create a citizen damage assessment using Survey 123, creating damage assessment using pre and post images, and examining damage patterns based of distance from the coastline. 

Hurricane Sandy, a Category 1 storm, affected the states of New Jersey and the Gulf coast with billions of damage and homes destroyed. Below, shows the map for Sandy's track and path with information regarding wind speeds and barometric pressure.

The second part, dealt on using Survey123 to create a citizen damage assessment which can be accessed by anyone with organizational account. This survey helps field collectors to assess the damage and compile it in one database. The database collects data like GPS point, photo, date and time, type and description of the damage. Here's the link to the damage assessment in Survey123.

The next task was to create a damage assessment based on the pre and post images of Hurricane Sandy. By creating a new feature class and domains, you can use this for a standard data collection in ArcGIS Collector since you have pre-defined the set of values that can be answered by the data collector. To use this in Collector, the next steps are to (1) publish the feature layer you created with the domain and fields as a hosted feature layer in ArcGIS Online, (2) add it into a web map and (3) set it for download (offline mode if able) on your mobile and start collecting data using ArcGIS Collector (mobile version). You can also collect using ArcGIS Online and add features from there. 

Lastly, we defined coastline buffers by 100, 200 and 300 meters and determined the type of damage per distance to coastline. I used the Select Layers by Location using Structure Damage as input and selecting features is the coastline. For coastline beyond 100m, I selected structure damage points within the 200m and removed using the same tool those points within the 100m. Then select layer by attributes according to their damage category. Easiest way is to copy the table paste on Excel and do a sum formula which you can also do in ArcGIS Pro but the trick is it’s easier to do it in Excel.

The findings proves that the nearer to the coastline the more damage to structures are. As you can see the damage is lesser when you’re away from the coastline. For the structures within 100m of the coastline, most of them fall under the major damage and destroyed category. While the structures 200m away focus more on major and minor damages. 

Here's my story map about Hurricane Sandy.