URPL 969 Applied GIS Workshop: Rethinking New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina

Source: SSEC, UW-Madison

Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Wisconsin-Madison Spring 2006 -- 3 credits David Hart, Coastal GIS Specialist, University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, Email: dhart *at* aqua.wisc.edu Phone: (608) 262-6515 Lecture - Wednesdays, 1:00 to 2:15 p.m. - 208 Old Music Hall Lab - Fridays, 1:00 to 2:15 p.m. - URPL Computer Lab

Quick Links Course Resources * Katrina Library * NEW Course Schedule Course Products * Group Projects * * GIS Application Papers * Links * Katrina GIS Resources * * Planning and Rebuilding * Map of New Orleans

On August 29th, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the central Gulf Coast. The storm killed over one thousand people in Louisiana and flooded 80% of the structures in New Orleans. A mandatory evacuation was ordered while governments drained the city, repaired levees, and restored critical infrastructure. The long-term human impacts of the catastrophe will be harder to assess. Local officials fear that many of the nearly half-million city residents may not return. The planning profession has a critical role in rethinking and rebuilding the city and region. The creative thinking of planners working in collaboration with other disciplines from engineering to sociology is needed to shape the future of New Orleans. An opportunity exists to rebuild the city in a sustainable and more socially equitable manner. This workshop allows students to use GIS to offer ideas and recommendations on how to rebuild New Orleans. It provides opportunities to learn about the environmental setting and culture of New Orleans; review the literature on coastal hazards, disaster recovery, and sustainable development; plan and design GIS applications, acquire and integrate spatial data; conduct sophisticated GIS analyses; and communicate ideas in a forum that will help decision-makers as they shape the future of one of America’s greatest and beloved cities.

Course Resources

GIS Training
As part of the Univerisity of Wisconsin System-ESRI site license, students, faculty, and staff have access to many of the courses offered as part of the "ESRI Virtual Campus" for free. Contact Math Heinzel at LICGF (5-8536) for the "key" that will allow you to take the course.

Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans Library

Books

• Rose, Chris. 2006. 1 Dead in Attic. Chris Rose Books.
• McQuaid, John and Mark Schleifstein. 2006. Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms. Little, Brown.
• Horne, Jed. 2006. Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City. Random House.
• van Heerden, Ivor and Mike Bryan. 2006. The Storm: What Went Wrong During Hurricane Katrina - the Inside Story from One Louisiana Scientist. Viking Adult.
• Brinkley, Douglas. 2006. The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. William Morrow.
• Campanella, Richard. 2006. Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm. University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Center for Louisiana Studies.
• Dyson, Michael Eric. 2006. Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. Perseus Books Group.
• Childs, John Brown (Ed.). 2006. Hurricane Katrina: Response and Responsibilities. New Pacific Press.

• Campanella, Thomas J. 2006. "Urban Resilience and the Recovery of New Orleans" Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 72, No. 2, Spring 2006, pp. 141-146.
• Olshansky, Robert B. 2006. "Planning After Hurricane Katrina" Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 72, No. 2, Spring 2006, pp. 147-153.
• Houck, Oliver. 2006. "Can We Save New Orleans?" Tulane Environmental Law Review. Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring 2006) pp. 1-68.
• Dixon, Timothy H., Falk Amelung, Alessandro Ferretti, Fabrizio Novali, Fabio Rocca, Roy Dokka, Giovanni Sella, Sang-Wan Kim, Shimon Wdowinski, and Dean Whitman. 2006. "Space Geodesy: Subsidence and Flooding in New Orleans" Nature, June 1, 2006, vol. 441, pp. 587-588.
• Kunreuther, Howard. 2006. "Disaster Mitigation and Insurance: Learning from Katrina" The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol 604, March 2006, pp. 208-226.

• Baum, Dan. 2006. "The Lost Year: Beyond the Failure to Rebuild" New Yorker. August 21, 2006.
• Reichard, Peter. 2006. "Curves Ahead" Planning, August/September 2006, pp. 6-11.
• Kolbert, Elizabeth. 2006. "Watermark - Can southern Louisiana be saved?" New Yorker. February 27, 2006, pp. 45-57.

• Hurricane Katrina Library. Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado.
• BGR in the News. Bureau of Governmental Research. (Links to local articles about the impacts of Hurricane Katrina. Scroll down on the web page to see the links.)
• Hurricane Katrina Coverage. New York Times.
• Hurricane Katrina Archive. The New Yorker.

Course Schedule

• Hurricane Katrina: The Storm That Drowned a City. NOVA, aired November 22, 2005.
• The Storm. Frontline, aired November 22, 2005.
  

• Burkett, V.R., Zilkoski, D.B., and Hart, D.A. 2003. Sea-level rise and subsidence: implications for flooding in New Orleans, Louisiana. in Prince, K.R., and Galloway, D.L., eds., U.S. Geological Survey Subsidence Interest Group Conference, Proceeding of the Technical Meeting, November 27-29, 2001, Galveston, Texas, pp. 63-70.
• Campanella, Richard, Daniel Etheridge, and Douglas J. Meffert. 2004. "Sustainability, Survivability, and the Paradox of New Orleans" Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. vol. 1023 pp. 289-299. Accessible from the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences from computers with a wisc.edu domain.

Week 2

• Toole, John Kennedy. 1980. A Confederacy of Dunces. Grove/Atlantic.
• Percy, Walker. 1961. The Moviegoer. Ivy Books.

Friday, January 27
Collaboration Resources
Guest Lecture. Jeff Bohrer and Cathy Riley, DoIT Academic Computing

Explore some of the web-based collaboration technologies and tools available on the UW-Madison campus and beyond and how they can be used to present ideas and share data.

• MyWebSpace, UW-Madison, Division of Information Technology
• MyWebSpace, Group Directories, UW-Madison, Division of Information Technology
• WisLineWeb, UW Extension
• Handout on Collaborative Tools, by Jeff Bohrer (pdf file 18KB)

• RSS Feeds and Podcasts
• Wikis, Wikipedia
• Weblogs, Wikipedia
• Using weblogs in the classroom at UW-Madison by Prof. Greg Downey, UW-Madison Journalism and Library Studies.
• Massively Distributed Collaboration, Wikipedia

Week 3

Week 4

Friday, February 10
Working with Elevation Data
We will explore Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data for New Orleans collected as part of a statewide project in Louisiana. Louisiana LiDAR data can be downloaded from Atlas: The Louisiana Statewide GIS

Elevation Data Lab Exercise (Unfinished rough draft dated 2/10/06)

Reading:

• Cunningham, Robert. 2004. The Louisiana Statewide LIDAR Project.

Week 5

Geodetic Control Data Lab Exercise (Unfinished rough draft dated 2/15/06)

Friday, February 17
Disaster Response and Recovery
Guest Lecture. Chris Diller, GIS Manager, Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs and Larry Reed, Southwest Region Director, Wisconsin Emergency Management

Week 6

• Dawes, Sharon S., Thomas Birkland, Giri Kumar Tayi, and Carrie A. Schneider. 2004. Information, Technology, and Coordination: Lessons from the World Trade Center Response. University at Albany, SUNY.
• Vale, Lawrence J. and Thomas J. Campanella (Eds.). 2005. The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster. Oxford University Press. (Introduction and Conclusion). Accessible in electronic form through netLibrary, UW Libraries from computers with a wisc.edu domain.
• Schwab, James. et al. 1998. Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction. American Planning Association. PAS Report 483/484. (Chapters 1 and 2)

Friday, February 24
Working with Parcel Data
We will explore digital parcel mapping for the New Orleans, as well as the New Orleans Property Database.

New Orleans Parcel Data Lab Exercise (Unfinished rough draft dated 2/23/06)

Week 7

Week 8

Friday, March 10
Public Participation GIS
Guest Lecture. Michael Barndt, Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee, Inc.

Readings:

• Barndt, Michael. 1998. "A Model for Evaluating Public Participation GIS Programs"
• Kingsley, G. Thomas. 1998. Neighborhood Indicators: Taking Advantage of the New Potential. The Urban Institute.
• Schlossberg, Marc and Elliot Shuford. 2005. "Delineating “Public” and “Participation” in PPGIS" URISA Journal. Vol 16. No. 2. pp 15-26.
• Drew, Christina H. 2003. "Transparency - Considerations for PPGIS Research and Development" URISA Journal. Vol 15. APA I. pp 73-78.
• Craig, William J., Trevor M. Harris, and Daniel Weiner (Eds.). 2002. Community Participation and Geographic Information Systems. Taylor & Francis.

Assignment Due:

• Assignment - Review of Hurricane Katrina Response/Recovery GIS Application

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16

Course Products

Group Projects

• Project Presentation (Powerpoint Slides - Adobe pdf file - 2.4 MB)
  
• Project Report (Adobe pdf file - 1.3 MB). Summary: Students searched (in April 2006), with limited success, for information that residents would need to know about the current status of urban services in order to make an informed decision about returning to New Orleans. Information was difficult to find and, when found, was often in a variety of formats that made comparison or analysis difficult. Students also developed a list of data needed to support long-range planning post-Katrina. The list was broken into 12 catagories: hazard data, community resources, public services, utilitites, public safety, transportation, natural resources, political boundaries, demographics, parcels, land use/zoning, and housing. The students identified two types of data gaps: overarching constraints to rebuilding efforts in New Orleans and specific constraints to neighborhood planning using a GIS template. The specific constraints include data availability, consistency issues, accessibility issues, location, limited time frame for the class project, and lack of expertise. Next, the students searched for web mapping sites working at the neighborhood level that could help engage citizens in the recovery planning process. The model sites include the Philadelphia Neighborhood Information System for identifying why certain neighborhoods struggle and assessing crime patterns; the Greensboro, NC web mapping applications for trash pickup and comprehensive planning; Baltimore County, MD's MyNeighborhood for identifying neighborhood facilities; and Fairfax County, VA's MyNeighborhood for identification of nearby neighborhood services. The student's final recommedations include: immediate and effective dissemination of pertinent information; increased access to data in consistent, dynamic formats; and development of long-range web-mapping applications.

• Project Presentation (Powerpoint Slides - pdf file - 4.2MB)
  
• Project Report (Adobe pdf file - 1.3MB). Summary: Students used kriging methods on subsidence data from 1951 to 1995 to create a subsidence rate surface and a predicted 50-year elevation surface for part of the East Bank of Orleans Parish. The students also created maps that correlate subsidence rates with SSURGO soils and water well locations. The project presentation includes maps that correlate subsidence rates with geology; land use; floodplains, levees, and pumping stations.

Hurricane Katrina Response/Recovery GIS Application Papers

• Paper - City of New Orleans. New Orleans Use of GIS in Post Hurricane Katrina Damage Assesment by Paul Hampton and Benjamin Webb.
• Paper - Jefferson Parish. Jefferson Parish GIS Hurricane Response Review by Neil Dixon and Ryan Ziegelbauer.
• Paper - New Orleans Regional Planning Commission. GIS Use in the Hurricane Katrina Response and Recovery Efforts - New Orleans Regional Planning Commission by Drew Pennington and Gourgen Melikian.
• Paper - State of Louisiana. The Role of the Louisiana Geographic Information Center in the Response to Hurricane Katrina by Jared Chapiewsky and Laura Brown.
• Paper - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Katrina Impact Assessment: A Review of NOAA’s Interactive Mapping Service by Laura Craig and Tory Kress.
• Paper - Federal Emergency Management Agency. Profile of FEMA’s Mapping and Analysis Center by Teresa Gillotti and Joe Rude.
• Paper - Katrina Image Warehouse. Review of the Katrina Image Warehouse by Ria Hull and Catrine Lehrer-Brey.
• Paper - GIS Corps. The Role of GISCorps in Hurricane Katrina Response and Recovery Operations by Tanya Meyer, Erika Rence, and Wintford Thornton.

Links

• Community on One (GIS), City of New Orleans
  The Community on One serves as the City's GIS portal for Community Recovery & Resources. It provides the ability to search by address for recovery data, a property viewer, and GIS data download.
• Tax Assessment Records, Orleans Parish Board of Assessors
  Search for property assessment records by owner name, tax bill number, address, or access all records on a street.
• Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, Greater New Orleans Nonprofit Knowledge Works
  One of the most robust Public Participation GIS sites in the country. Provides information to support nonprofit grantwriting, advocacy, planning & decision-making in post-Katrina New Orleans.
• Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Clearinghouse, Louisiana State University
  The Clearinghouse includes the GIS Store -- a 20 terrabyte server set up by LSU to promote interagency data sharing in the aftermath of Katrina.
• The Louisiana Statewide GIS Atlas, Louisiana State University
  Download a variety of GIS data, including LiDAR elevation, orthophotos, census data, topo maps, and land cover.
• Louisiana Geographic Information Systems Council
  The GIS coordination body for the State of Louisiana. Includes information on Hurricane Response Mapping, the Louisiana Geospatial Metadata Catalog, and a link to Louisiana Map, the state's official geospatial portal.
• LOSCO Data Catalog, Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office
  Download over 80 GIS data sets.
• Geospatial One Stop Portal
  One stop for GIS data for the nation. Includes a "Hurricane" community with links to interactive maps, images, and data for Hurricane Katrina response and recovery.
• Hurricane Katrina Images, NOAA, National Geodetic Survey
  Imagery acquired by the NOAA Remote Sensing Division to support NOAA national security and emergency response requirements. Some of the first photos available to the public after the storm.
• Katrina Image Warehouse, Telescience
  A clearinghouse utilizing open standards for imagery, elevation data, and geographic data for the Katrina-affected areas. A collaborative effort made the NOAA photography available in many formats soon after Katrina.
• Hurricane Flood Recovery Data, FEMA
  Maps showing the extent and magnitude of Hurricane Katrina’s surge, as well as information on advisory flood data for Louisiana parishes. Also includes GIS data and recovery and mitigation resources.
• Katrina Remote Sensing Data, FEMA
• Hurricane Katrina Disaster Response, USGS, Eros Data Center
  EROS is the clearinghouse for all aerial, satellite and ground information on areas struck by Katrina.
• Hurricane Katrina FTP Site, USGS, Eros Data Center
• GIS Resources for Hurricane Katrina, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science
• Hurricane Interoperability Demo, Open Integrated Ocean Observing System
• Demographic Data - Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, SEDAC, CEISIN, Columbia University
• Geospatial Support for the Hurricane Katrina Recovery, Mid-American Geospatial Information Center
• Hurricane Katrina Maps, Perry Castenada Map Collection, University of Texas
• Debris Site Maps, Louisiana Dept. of Environmental Quality

• Unified New Orleans Plan
  The Unified New Orleans Plan, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Greater New Orleans Foundation, is a process that has been endorsed by the Mayor, City Council, City Planning Commission and the Louisiana Recovery Authority.
• New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilding Plan
  The New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilding Plan, also known as the Lambert Plan, was commissioned by the City Council in April 2006.
• Bring New Orleans Back Commission
  The mission of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission was to provide the Mayor of New Orleans a master plan that rebuilds New Orleans culturally, socially, economically, and uniquely for every citizen.
• NOLAplans
  An effort by two graduate students in city planning at the University of California, Berkeley to document the post-Katrina planning process in New Orleans.
• Louisiana Recovery Authority
  The Louisiana Recovery Authority is the planning and coordinating body that was created in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita by Governor Blanco to plan for the recovery and rebuilding of Louisiana.
• Louisiana Road Home Program
  The Road Home program is designed to help residents of Louisiana affected by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita get back into their homes as quickly and fairly as possible. The program affords eligible homeowners up to $150,000 in compensation for their losses to get back into their homes.
• Louisiana Rebuilds
  A portal for information on rebuilding after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
• Louisiana Speaks
  Louisiana Speaks is a multifaceted planning process, endorsed by the Louisiana Recovery Authority, to develop a sustainable, long-term vision for South Louisiana in the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
• White House, Hurricane Relief: Rebuilding the Gulf Coast
• Working Group for Post Hurricane Planning for the Louisiana Coast, University of Maryland, Center for Environmental Science
• Katrina Cottage, New Urban Guild

• New Orleans Times Picayune
• Gambit Weekly
• New Orleans City Business
• New Orleans Magazine
• New Orleans Independent Media Center
• WWL-TV Channel 4 (CBS)
• WDSU-TV Channel 6 (NBC)
• WVUE-TV Channel 8 (FOX)
• WYES-TV Channel 12 (PBS)
• WGNO-TV Channel 26 (ABC)
• WLAE-TV Channel 32 (PBS)
• WWNO-FM 89.9 (PBS)
• WWOZ-FM 90.7 (community radio)

Images

• New Orleans: Then and Now Charley Varley, Photojournalist.
• Benny Chappetta's video of damage from Hurricane Katrina in St. Bernard Parish (streaming video - large download).
• Aerial Views of Gulf Coast Storm Damage taken by Edward Fink for the Washington Post.
• Panoramic Photos of Katrina's Destruction from the Washington Post.

Multimedia Exhibits

• Flash Flood: Hurricane Katrina's Innundation of New Orleans - August 29, 2005, Times Picayune Interactive Exhibit
• New Orleans: Rebuilding for the Future. Environmental information aimed at helping southeastern Louisiana restore coastal wetlands and barrier islands. A joint project of the NOAA Coastal Services Center and a New Orleans TV station.
• Maps: The Impact of Hurricane Katrina, New York Times

Blogs

• Beyond Katrina
• Metroblogging New Orleans
• People Get Ready
• Think New Orleans
• List of New Orleans Bloggers. New Orleans Wiki.

Courses

• Bayou Bienvenue Wetland Restoration. Water Resources Practicum, Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Spring 2007).
• Solving Complex Problems 12.000 - MISSION 2010: Can we fix New Orleans?. MIT (Fall 2006). This course was designed to provide incoming freshmen at MIT the opportunity to work as part of a team to propose solutions to a complex problem that requires an interdisciplinary approach. Students were divided into nine teams and had the coaching of upperclassmen, MIT alumni, and experts from around the US and abroad. The course culminated with a webcast on the evening of December 5, 2006.
• Katrina Practicum. MIT (Spring 2006).

Volunteer Opportunities

• Alternative Break, UW-Madison (includes service projects in New Orleans).
• New Orleans Habitat for Humanity.
• The Green Project. (Recycling building components).
• Common Ground Collective.
• List of Volunteer Opportunities. Katrina Krewe.
• Volunteer in New Orleans. ACORN.

Miscellaneous

• Katrina Issues, Brookings Institute, Metropolitan Policy Program
  The Brookings Institute coverage of Katrina issues includes the Katrina Index, a monthy report on rebuilding indicators.
• Big Questions After Big Hurricanes, MIT Symposia
• American Diaspora
• Hurricane 2005 Archive, The Map Room
• Hurricane Katrina, Wikipedia
• New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
• Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide