The Role of the Louisiana Geographic Information Center in the Response to Hurricane Katrina

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1 The Role of the Louisiana Geographic Information Center in the Response to Hurricane Katrina By: Jared Chapiewsky & Laura Brown For: URPL 969- GIS Applications in Response to Hurricane Katrina Date: March 10, 2006

2 Overview of the Louisiana GIS Council (LGISC) and Louisiana Geographic Information Center (LAGIC) About the Louisiana GIS Council The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by government agencies has become increasingly important in the last 20 years. As new technology emerges, it has become easier for federal, state, and local governments to produce spatial data for a variety of uses. With all of this data being created by a number of different sources, it became necessary that some kind of central agency be created to manage and coordinate its use. In the state of Louisiana, the agency created was the Louisiana GIS Council. The Louisiana Geographic Information Systems Council (LGISC) was created by the state legislature in The council is made up of representatives from 21 different agencies from around the state. Its mission statement is to: "Eliminate duplication of effort and unnecessary redundancy in data collections and systems and to provide for integration of geographically-related data bases to facilitate the policy and planning purposes of the state of Louisiana." - (La R.S. 49: ; Acts 1995, No.922 amended by Act 772 of 2001) Along with this mission, the LGISC is assigned with a number of specific tasks. These tasks include promoting the use of GIS, coordinating the acquisition of statewide data, and facilitating data exchange between state agencies. Since its creation, the council has created or supported many programs to address its mission. It has offered training in the use of GIS and the creation of standards-compliant metadata. It created the Data Recognition Project, which provides a base set of datasets that the council felt were important to the development of GIS in the state. They created the Digital Orthophotography Project to acquire high-resolution satellite and aerial 2

3 photography of the entire state. They set up an annual Louisiana GIS Day, to help spread awareness of the use of GIS and to create a geospatial portal site to provide single-source access to Louisiana s geospatial data assets. Though a subcommittee was assigned to each of these projects, it was not possible for the LGISC to manage them all directly. In coordination with the Louisiana Office of E-Service the LGISC created the Louisiana Geographic Information Center to act as their operational unit. About the Louisiana Geographic Information Center The Louisiana Geographic Information Center (LAGIC) facilitate(s) the distribution of geographic information, provide(s) technical assistance, and support(s) GIS data development among state, federal, and local government. While the organization serves primarily as a clearinghouse and facilitating body, LAGIC staff also participate in many geospatial projects including Address Matching & Geocoding Evaluations, the LouisianaMAP Geospatial Portal Technology Innovation Fund, workshops & tutorials for LouisianaMAP, development of sub segment mapping with the Department of Environmental Quality, oil spill data and metadata catalogs, and support for the Louisiana GIS CD-ROM, a free digital map of the state designed to promote the use of GIS. LAGIC also offers trainings to GIS users on topics such as, remote sensing, 3

4 metadata, and use of ArcCatalog. The LAGIC website provides a portal to a myriad of GIS resources including data and metadata catalogs, data standards information, software extensions, national data search tools, and internet map servers. The website also links to LAGIC s own map server which provides access to geospatial data managed by LAGIC including Hurricane Response Mapping. Analysis of LAGIC s role in GIS application creation after Hurricane Katrina LAGIC played an important role in emergency response after Hurricane Katrina. As Craig Johnson, director of LAGIC, described it, their office was inundated with data requests after the storm. University, state, and local agencies came to LAGIC looking for datasets that sometimes were out of date, or in some cases did not even exist yet. As these were emergency situations and the agencies often needed the data on short notice, LAGIC had to create some datasets themselves. Even data that already existed was difficult to acquire. Local government data was the hardest to find after the storm. Even before Katrina, the lack of digital spatial data was considered a problem in the state:1/3 of the parish assessors had no digital data or well developed GIS departments. This problem increased after the storm, as parish offices were destroyed, power was disconnected, and people were scattered around the state. Craig Johnson explained that he sometimes had to contact people at their homes in order to obtain much needed data. An example of this type of data recovery occurred with St. Bernard Parish. According to Johnson, an oil refinery in this parish was damaged, and the EPA contacted his office in search of cadastral data. The St. Bernard Parish GIS department was damaged from the storm, and they did not have their latest cadastral data available online. Luckily the dataset 4

5 had recently been completed, and LAGIC was able to contact someone from the parish to retrieve the data. Though personal knowledge helped locate some of the datasets, the resources of LAGIC that existed were useful after the storm too. The LouisianaMap geospatial data portal, which was created by a partnership between LAGIC and the Louisiana Office of Electronic Services, provided access to many of the datasets requested by government agencies. Though in our interview Mr. Johnson explained how limited financial resources prevented the LouisianaMap from being updated as often as necessary to be a fully functional portal. In response to requests for data that the LouisianaMap could not fulfill, LAGIC also quickly compiled an Atlas of Hurricane related data. The Hurricane Atlas: Impact and Influence The Hurricane Atlas is a 36 page full color document created using GIS in response to numerous requests for data and information regarding the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Atlas is comprised of a series of data sets, charts, maps and photos that illustrate the environmental, economic, and social effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This includes a summary of the storms' impacts, winds, rainfall and the storm surges, statewide economic impact, employment by parish, 5

6 effects on oil refineries, impact on social services emergency rooms and hospitals, and general demographic information including income and poverty levels, housing, and population. The Hurricane Atlas is in itself not a GIS application, but the tools available through it were created using numerous GIS applications and the process of its creation and dissemination served several other important purposes. Based on information obtained from the Louisiana Geographic Information Center the Atlas was clearly intended to provide a simple, easily accessible, and non-technological method of disseminating vital information. As a summary of data from many different agencies using GIS applications, the Atlas also serves as an important communication and organizing tool for these entities. The collaboration allowed LAGIC to bring these agencies' common interest of promoting GIS to the attention of state legislators at an event at the State Capital. At this event fifteen state agencies and some local government agencies produced posters which, along with the Atlas, were displayed in the state rotunda. All 100 color copies of the atlas were distributed that day and LAGIC has had requests for many more copies. However, due to the cost of producing high quality graphics in the Atlas and the limits of the LAGIC budget, not many more have been distributed in hard copy. According to LAGIC Director Craig Johnson the event was still a great success in that it gave state agencies a chance to show the legislature and the public how geospatial data can be used. Such collaborative efforts may further serve the purpose of facilitating ongoing collaborations and preventing replication of tools, information, and resources. Other LAGIC responses to Katrina Along with the Hurricane Atlas, LAGIC has had a history of increasing awareness of GIS in the state. By showing local government the usefulness of digital spatial data, locating data may not 6

7 prove to be such a hardship the next time a disaster strikes in the state. Through grants and funding from organizations like Sea Grant, LAGIC has provided metadata and GIS training to agencies around the state. They have also participated in other grants to aid in the use of GIS. For example, LAGIC recently worked with a parish to compile their local datasets onto DVDs to distribute to their emergency planning departments. This meant fire fighters, paramedics, and other emergency response teams could easily access the data in the field. Analysis and Conclusions Despite the limited resources available to LAGIC it seems clear that the organization played an important role in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The GIS applications available to the general public through the LAGIC website were mainly created by federal agencies such as FEMA, NOAA, and USGS, and very few applications exist at the state or local level. This represents a clear need for both LAGIC and the Louisiana GIS Council to promote GIS on the state and local level. Unfortunately LAGIC continues to be ill equipped to handle to the ongoing resource needs of the many municipalities, legislators, and agencies in need of such essential information. Hiring more staff, updating aging datasets, ensuring data concurrency, continuing to work with municipalities to create new datasets, facilitating communication between like agencies, and providing essential training are all important steps in the process of updating Louisiana's emergency response system that require a commitment of public energies and funds. LAGIC's efforts to bring these issues to the forefront of the legislative agenda may be key to ensuring the organization's future vitality. 7

8 Appendix Interview with Craig Johnson, LAGIC Director 3/6/06 1. What resources were available through LAGIC before Katrina? What needs arose? How are these needs being addresses? Are there any gaps? The capabilities of LAGIC were the same before the storms. One of the biggest needs that arose was the demand for datasets. Agencies assumed many of these datasets existed, and asked for them as they needed them, usually in emergency situations. It turns out some of these datasets didn t exist, and LAGIC had to create them quickly. They have tried in the past to deal with this gap of datasets by taking surveys of all the GIS producers in the state to find the status of their data. 2. Data Concurrency: LAGIC requests agencies create their data according to federal standards, and most do. But they have a lot of old datasets (pre-1995) that do not meet the standards. Some of these have been brought up to date, but others, like ones created from one-time grants, can not be updated due to lack of funds, etc. 3. Local governments One of the problems after the storm was the lack of local government data. For example, an oil refinery in St. Bernard Parish was damaged, and the EPA wanted cadastral data to find out who owned the land around the refinery. The parish office was damaged by the storm, and they did not have the data online anywhere. Luckily the dataset had recently been completed, and LAGIC was able to contact someone to get a hold of it. Many datasets have to be obtained through personal knowledge, and not through a data inventory or portal, but this is getting better. LAGIC has done surveys to get status reports of data available, with a 70% return rate. This data has then been added to the LouisianaMap portal. Craig noted that the LouisianaMap was a one-time grant with the DOA, and therefore it was limited and not a fully functional portal. They would like to add to it, but they just don t have the budget ($175,000 a year, compared to 3 million in some states!!). He also talked about how it was up to local governments to create the data, and this really came down to how much money the parish has. In general, the parishes hit by Katrina were more well off (coastal parishes, oil revenue), so they had some GIS data. About 1/3 of parish assessors don t have digital data (NE Parishes mainly), 1/3 have good GIS departments, and 1/3 are somewhere in between. 4. Funding and Training As I mentioned, LAGIC is not well funded, and therefore can only update the site sporadically. They function off grants mainly. One recent grant was with TerraBonne Parish, to help them 8

9 share their GIS data with their emergency planning departments. To this end, LAGIC compiled datasets onto DVDs so that emergency operators in the field could use the data with a laptop. Craig mentioned that they wanted to expand this to other parishes. LAGIC has also received FGDC CAP grants which, along with Sea Grant funding has provided metadata and GIS training. They focused this training on local governments, as mentioned earlier many have poor to no GIS departments, but state agencies received some training also. 5. Hurricane Atlas The Hurricane Atlas was created mainly by Joshua Kent. It was done because of the great need for information that arose after the hurricane. In Craig s own words, they were inundated (poor taste?) with data requests from University, local, and state agencies. Many of the local data sites were down, and LAGIC did not have some of the local data on hand, so LAGIC had to contact some people at their homes. The Atlas was unveiled at a show-and-tell event at the state legislature. Fifteen state agencies and some local government agencies produced posters which, along with the atlas, were displayed in the state rotunda. All 100 color copies of the atlas were distributed that day, and people requested more, but due to low budgets (color copies cost $15 each) not many more have been distributed in hard copy. The event was a great success, in that it gave state agencies a chance to show the legislature and the public how they use geospatial data and how useful it is. The atlas was even distributed to a number of schools. Craig was not aware of exactly who is currently using the Atlas or in what capacity. 6. Future plans We didn t really discuss this, but he did mention at the end that thanks to new legislature LAGIC would be able to charge for some services, which would help their budget problems. 9