Darion Grant

Probabilistic Determination of Crash Locations in a Road Network with Imperfect Data

The limited quality of location data poses a major problem to those who want to use such data for research or safety management. The proportion of crashes unassigned to specific road locations is considerable. This fact is sometimes overlooked because crash database queries return crashes assignable to locations but do not issue warnings about crashes that are not assignable. Without reliable location information, crash data are of limited use for more refined safety research and even for basic road safety management. Probabilistic linking techniques are frequently chosen to link medical, census, and other population records, mainly for medical research but also for security concerns and market studies. This paper presents a first application of the probabilistic method of assigning crashes to roads through linking road crash records with road inventory records. Because of missing or incorrect data, multiple locations are candidates, and probabilistic linking offers a solution by selecting the highest-likelihood locations. This paper uses the Bayesian approach to link data in a version specialized for linking one-to-many records.

Remote Sensing, Public Health & Disaster Mitigation

The authors review advances in applications for geotechnologies, specifically earth-observing satellite remote sensing, geo-positioning (i.e. USA’s Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia’s Global’naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLONASS), Europe’s Galileo and China’s Beidou/Compass) and selected geo-spatial modeling software for public health and disaster management applications, with an emphasis on environmental health and environmental sustainability. Specific applications addressed include the use of remote sensing for infectious disease vector habitat identification and ecologically sustainable disease vector population mitigation, as well as the integration of GPS into mobile CD4 testing devices for HIV/AIDS. Public domain software models described include the Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM) and the Hydrologic Engineering River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) for flood modeling. Examples of regional, national and global real-time data acquisition and near-real-time data product development and distribution for time-critical events are offered, specifically through the Purdue Terrestrial Observatory (PTO), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) supported AmericaView and the International Charter – Space & Major Disasters.

The Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory: A NATO supported real-time remote sensing receiving station being established in Egypt with HPC-enabled near-real-time data products for mitigation of environmental & public health disasters

Establishment of the Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory (KEEO) has been funded by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Science for Peace Program. KEEO is a joint initiative of two of Egypts largest and most venerable institutions of higher learning, Cairo University and Al Azhar University, both based in Cairo, Egypt, in collaboration with established environmental observatories in two NATO countries, Turkey and the USA. Specifically, the Egyptian partners, based in their Departments of Meteorology and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, at the two Egyptian Universities, are engaging in applications development, research and instructional collaboration with partnering resources from Bogaziçi Universitys Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (Istanbul, Turkey), with expertise in disaster mitigation, and Purdue Universitys Rosen Center for Advanced Computings Purdue Terrestrial Observatory (West Lafayette, Indiana, USA), with expertise in real-time remote sensing and multi-disciplinary applications of satellite data. The KEEO project provides an interdisciplinary approach to effective disaster management and facilitates collaborative research and decision support, within the Egyptian context, for disaster mitigation.

Deployment of real-time satellite remote sensing infrastructure to support disaster mitigation: A NATO Science for Peace collaboration project with Research Universities in Turkey, Egypt and the USA

The authors delineate the specific roles of the research partner institutions from Turkey, Egypt and the USA, in planning and implementing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Science for Peace sponsored Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory (KEEO), a network of real-time satellite remote sensing ground stations, being established over the next three years in Egypt, with a tracking station for polar orbiting satellites at Cairo University, and a networked geostationary receiving station for the European Space Agencys Meteosat being deployed at Al Azhar University. The primary objective of the project is to facilitate early warning and mitigation of a wide range of biogenic and anthropogenic disasters. The project will also address mitigation of epidemics and epizootics, through identification and monitoring of infectious disease vector and reservoir habitat. Some examples of common concern among participating countries are climate change and its impacts, the land use problems in agriculture, air pollution problems in major cities such as Cairo and Istanbul, recent epidemics such as the bird flu, swine flu and oil spills along the seashores. Archival and real-time remote sensing and generation of near-real-time spatial data products, utilizing high performance computing clusters, are planned throughout the life cycle of disaster management, including vulnerability assessment, infrastructure safeguards, early warning, emergency response, humanitarian relief, as well as post-disaster damage assessment, reconstruction and societal recovery.

Acquisition, analysis and distribution of real-time multi-sensor satellite data, in a high performance computing environment, for disaster mitigation applications: Case studies from the NATO science for peace funded Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory in Egypt, the Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY)-Africa and the US Geological Survey supported AmericaView

The paper presents an implementation of the current state-of-the-art, with respect to acquisition, analysis and distribution of real-time remotely sensed data from multiple polar orbiting and geostationary earth observing satellite sensors, deploying high performance computing for time-critical disaster mitigation applications. The authors also describe the prototype Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory (KEEO), now under development at Cairo University and at Al Azhar University in Egypt, as a technological exemplar of indigenous expertise, real-time remote sensing, near-real-time spatial data products, supercomputer access from Egypts space agency-NARSS, partnerships with multi-lateral agencies (e.g. UN WHO, Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY)-Africa), sensor data archives from the United States Geological Survey (USGS)-supported AmericaView, funding from NATOs Science for Peace Program and collaborative research with Bogaziçi Universitys Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI) in Istanbul, Turkey and with Purdue Universitys Rosen Center for Advanced Computings Purdue Terrestrial Observatory (PTO) in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.