Bandana Kar

A GIS‐Based Model to Determine Site Suitability of Emergency Evacuation Shelters

In recent years, the increase in the number of hurricanes and other costal hazards in the US pose a tremendous threat to the residents of coastal states. According to the National Hurricane Center, Florida is the most vulnerable coastal state to hurricanes. Mitigation policies have been formulated to reduce mortality and provide emergency services by evacuating people from the hazard zone. Many of these evacuees, particularly the elderly or lower income populations, rely on evacuation shelters for temporary housing. Because of the cost and limited use, evacuation shelters are almost exclusively dual use shelters where the primary purpose of the facility is for some other public function (e.g. school, hospital, etc.). In 2000, the estimated shortage of public shelter spaces in Florida was about 1.5 million. The purpose of this study was to rank the existing and candidate shelters (schools, colleges, churches and community centers) available in the state based on their site suitability. The research questions examined in this study include: (1) How many candidate shelters are located in physically suitable areas (e.g. not in a flood prone area, not near hazardous facilities, etc.)?; (2) How many existing shelters are located in physically unsuitable areas, but in socially suitable areas (situated in areas with demand)?; (3) How many alternative existing and/or candidate shelters with high/very high physical suitability are located near physically unsuitable existing shelters and thus, may be better choices for a shelter?; and (4) How many existing shelters located in physically unsuitable areas are not near alternative existing and/or candidate shelters? A Geographic Information System-based suitability model integrating Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) with a Pass/Fail screening technique was implemented for the 17 counties of Southern Florida. It was found that 48% of the existing shelters are located in

The Myth of Location Privacy in the United States: Surveyed Attitude Versus Current Practices

In the United States, legal steps have been taken to protect personal privacy, which is viewed as an individuals fundamental right. Location privacy (i.e., protection of personal and location information), however, has not received equal attention in the legal system. Given the recent popularity of location-based services (e.g., cell phones), it is possible to obtain an individuals location information easily and precisely. An investigation of public perception of privacy in the United States indicated that survey responders (1) were unaware of legal implications of location privacy violation and (2) believed that there should be location privacy protection similar to that provided by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Modeling the Potential Swath Coverage of Nadir and Off-Nadir Pointable Remote Sensing Satellite-Sensor Systems

Pointable sensor systems onboard many earth resources satellites today, particularly the higher spatial resolution sensors, provide for a near infinite set of collection opportunities. Satellite orbits of these systems are not systematic repetitive tracks. Predicting future collection opportunities requires predicting where the satellite will be and then computing the potential swath coverage from a pointable sensor along these orbits. While each agency or company models its own satellite-sensor systems, few publicly available sources exist for mapping future satellite ground tracks. Evaluating collection opportunities from multiple satellite-sensor systems from different agencies/companies is problematic. The purpose of the research described in this article was to develop a generic approach for modeling future satellite-sensor collection opportunities. In this article, formulae are developed for computing the potential swath coverage, and an algorithm is designed for constructing the potential swath coverage area. The solution to the swath coverage problem is based on spherical trigonometry, a well known map projection (i.e., azimuthal equidistant map projection) used in an unconventional dynamic form, and a satellite orbital propagation model. We demonstrate how the computation of the swath coverage area can be accomplished using a temporal series of re-centered map projections.

Adapting to Life after Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: An Examination of Psychological Resilience and Depression on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among depression, psychological resilience, and other sociodemographic factors of individuals who were highly exposed to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. A spatially stratified random sample of 294 Mississippi Gulf Coast residents living in close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico were surveyed. Findings indicated that low education attainment, financial hardship, and disaster-related damages increased the likelihood of depression, whereas psychological resilience and having health insurance reduced the odds of depression. Implications for enhancing psychological resilience and increasing access to health insurance are discussed.

A Study of Local Government Website Inclusiveness: The Gap Between E-government Concept and Practice

This study examines the concept of electronic government (e-government) inclusiveness and evaluates the inclusiveness of local e-government websites. Inclusiveness sets e-government apart from other types of websites (e.g. commercial or organizational sites) that only serve exclusive market segments. An evaluation for inclusiveness of 101 local government websites from Mississippi (an underdeveloped area by many health and social metrics) revealed (1) a high frequency of issues that prevent inclusive service (on average each site had 291.83 issues), (2) high variability in terms of number of issues (range = [2, 3171]), and (3) widespread absence of websites (87 of the 188 municipalities and county seats did not have discoverable websites). These results suggest there is a need for more inclusiveness, but the allocation of resources to accomplish this may not be feasible. To address this, two strategic options are presented to information technology (IT) policy-makers who seek to leverage e-government for development: an idealistic approach with traditional IT investment for future returns and a pragmatic one that resembles an entrepreneurial IT start-up venture. The study contributes in three ways: we identify the concept and criteria of e-government inclusiveness; develop an automated, software-based, and replicable evaluation method that can be used by local governments to improve a websites inclusiveness; and present strategic options for using e-government to promote social and economic development.

Public Participation GIS and Participatory GIS in the Era of GeoWeb

In the 1990s, public participation (PPGIS) emerged as an approach to broaden public involvement in policymaking as well as use of GIS to promote the goals of nongovernmental organizations, grassroots groups, and community-based organizations (Dunn, 2007; Obermeyer, 1998; Sieber, 2006). Researchers adopted participatory GIS (PGIS) as the focus shifted to the developing world, and more emphasis was placed on providing a voice to marginalized communities rather than on communities influencing public policy. PGIS also combined explicit participatory methods from fields like Participatory Learning and Action (Pain, 2004). Overall, the goal has been to integrate the qualitative and experiential knowledge of local communities and individuals, thereby empowering them to participate in political decisionmaking. By enabling the participation of local people, especially non-experts, PGIS, and PPGIS (shortened to P/ PGIS) have provided a platform where these people can map alternate views of the same problem and analyze the same data differently from those with political power.

Observational Scale and Modeled Potential Residential Loss from a Storm Surge

Two geographically related questions with regard to hurricane-induced storm-surge impacts were investigated: (1) What observational scale of analysis is appropriate? (2) Is the effect of observational scale on model results predictable? These two research questions were investigated in the context of storm surge-induced impacts to single-family residential structures in Florida. The study was conducted for 21 coastal counties in Florida at five spatial scales of analysis: parcel, block, block group, tract, and county. The research findings reveal a monotonically decreasing relationship between predicted standardized residential loss (the ratio of predicted loss at scale X and the predicted loss at parcel scale) and the observational scale of analysis. This monotonic relationship was consistent for most Florida counties, primarily due to the notable spatial distribution of housing units and proximity to the coastline.

A GIS-Based Football Stadium Evacuation Model

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has identified sports stadiums as part of the nation’s critical infrastructure and potential terrorist targets. Therefore, evacuation planning and simulation have been identified as athletic event security best practices and standards. In this study, a Geographic Information System (GIS) based macro-simulation model was developed to compute evacuation time for the University of Southern Mississippi’s football stadium in the event of a human-made hazard. Although complex evacuation models exist, the purpose of this study was to develop a prototype GIS-based model that can be used as a training and pre-game preparation tool by local emergency personnel with access to a GIS-software rather than an expensive and proprietary evacuation model requiring skilled professionals. As per the model, the maximum and average evacuation times for all fans to exit the stadium and travel off campus were 4.1 hours and 2.1 hours respectively.

Community Resilience, Psychological Resilience, and Depressive Symptoms: An Examination of the Mississippi Gulf Coast 10 Years After Hurricane Katrina and 5 Years After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

OBJECTIVE This study examined the role of community resilience and psychological resilience on depressive symptoms in areas on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that have experienced multiple disasters. METHODS Survey administration took place in the spring of 2015 to a spatially stratified, random sample of households. This analysis included a total of 294 subjects who lived in 1 of the 3 counties of the Mississippi Gulf Coast at the time of both Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The survey included the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) scale, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). RESULTS There was a significant inverse relationship between psychological resilience and depressive symptoms and a significant positive relationship between community resilience and psychological resilience. The results also revealed that community resilience was indirectly related to depressive symptoms through the mediating variable of psychological resilience. CONCLUSIONS These findings highlight the importance of psychological resilience in long-term disaster recovery and imply that long-term recovery efforts should address factors associated with both psychological and community resilience to improve mental health outcomes. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:241-248).

Citizen science in risk communication in the era of ICT

Risk communication is the exchange of information among stakeholders about an impending disaster and its risks to help individuals take appropriate actions to mitigate hazard impacts. While traditional risk communication follows a command and control structure such that information from hierarchical and vertically integrated organizations is disseminated to broader community, social media uses a decentralized, collaborative, and network based communication approach. The growth of information and communication technologies has made social media a popular channel for disseminating alert and warning messages both by citizens and agencies. However, social media suffers from spreading rumors and hoaxes. To minimize rumors and increase citizen communication, a science gateway (Cyber‐Infrastructure for GeoInformatics and Community Resilience) has been deployed. This gateway, resulted from a research conducted along the Mississippi Gulf Coast communities, incorporates citizen science to evaluate warning message sources, message contents and dissemination channels to increase public response to warnings. This gateway built on the social construct of risk communication provides opportunities to citizens to share data and information about a hazard, and participate in building community resilience. Copyright