Page 83 - Mapping the Nation: Taking Climate Action

Inland Flooding As the climate changes, more extreme and frequent disasters are hitting communities that haven't previously had to deal with catastrophic emergencies. For instance, Tropical Storm Irene caused inland flooding in Vermont, destroying more than 100 iconic century- old covered bridges—structures not built to withstand a deluge of that force. Similarly, the floods in Germany in July 2021 were the result of record rainfall that led to flooding that swept away homes, forced evacuations, led to widespread power outages, and devastated agriculture and centuries-old infrastructure. In places frequently struck by hurricanes or tornadoes, preparedness is a way of life. However, extreme storms brought on by climate change are impacting communities unaccustomed to disasters. And emergency managers are increasingly tasked with responsibilities to coordinate responses to natural, technological, and human-made hazards in a great outpouring of the humanitarian response to a huge disaster. With the focus on anticipatory action, it is regional emergency planners who must determine how to make the greatest impact with their community's share of increased funding for preparedness. They will need GIS to understand local risks, see where mitigation projects will have the greatest impact, and figure out how to equitably address community needs. The latest iteration of GIS for public safety involves the integration of tools and real-time inputs to maintain situational awareness and enhance the flow of information to responders. A modern GIS combines data collection, analysis, and sharing to achieve operational intelligence. True operational intelligence helps managers see and communicate about incidents and changing conditions. With this system, the public safety community gains a deeper understanding of where to focus efforts to prevent, protect against, and mitigate the effects of complex threats and hazards. It allows agencies to understand, plan, and act together. Anticipatory action is one of the latest buzzwords in the response sector. The thinking is simple: if you can plan for the disaster before it hits, you can save more lives and save money. When severe weather events such as high winds and floods impact the same location over and over, they leave residents more vulnerable and consistently in recovery mode. But a better understanding of places, inherent in the geographic approach, can lead to mitigation or adaptation strategies. Emergency management and disaster response planners are emphasizing the importance of understanding an area's systemic risk to weather and environmental conditions to break the familiar cycle of respond, recover, and repeat. Mozambique has embraced a combination of drones, satellite imagery, and artificial intelligence to break the cycle. When two back- to-back cyclones hit in the same year, destroying crops and flooding cities, drones proved to be a helpful tool to find people in need of rescue. After the crisis abated, drones were used again to create a detailed digital terrain model to fuel a flood forecasting tool that will alert downstream communities when it's time to evacuate in future flooding emergencies. When response turns to resilience and capacity building, lives can be saved, and the worst impacts of disasters can be averted. It's no longer safe to build with the once-in-a-century storm in mind when these storms are happening much more frequently. And GIS can inform communities how to prepare now and where to strengthen infrastructure for long-term resilience. 82