Continual advances bring endless new possibilities in all walks of life.
With more and more options for collecting, processing, and analyzing the data that the Earth generates, the ability to interpret what it means as it relates to public safety continues to be strengthened, leading to a more informed, and ultimately safer, community.
Here's a few ways that capturing natural data can assist with emergency situations:
Continuous monitoring of seismic activity allows for fault movement to be recorded and analyzed to generate probability models and expected impacts, leading to high preparedness levels among the community. It also allows for potentially new faults or patterns to be detected and discovered.
Enhanced sensors, connectivity, and data transfer speeds allow for the possibility of a warning system that can send emergency alerts to cell phones prior to the main, damaging waves of an earthquake. This allows people to take appropriate action (duck, cover, hold) and reduces risk of injury during the shaking.
LiDAR is used extensively in geological science and has many diverse applications, from finding new movement patterns to calculating precise geological functions, like the uplift of Mount St. Helens and assisting in creating maps with great topographic and structural detail.
Another example comes to us from wildfire monitoring. The photo above is from the Oakland Hills Fire of 1991, where numerous factors on the ground affected the operational side of the response. The satellite photo allowed command staff to get a new angle on the activity and gave them the ability to pinpoint areas of areas that had been burned over, areas that were intensely burning (including seeing hundreds of individual structures at one time), and anticipate possible future spread.
Finally, sensors like this one monitor water flow and levels as well as other environmental factors and are able to give a status of a body of water, forecasting flooding and monitoring storm effects in real-time. Monterey County has approximately 50 of these sites, and was one of the first networks of its kind. For more on the ALERT system, visit the Monterey County Water Resources Agency page about it.
As technology continues to evolve, we can keep "listening" to clues and information to better help us be more prepared to cope with the adverse effects of emergency situations through things like planning and mitigation strategies, increasing our response capacities, and helping in recovery efforts.
Happy Earth Day!
