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Module 6: Damage Assessment

This week I learned how to utilize ArcGis Pro to make out the pathway of a past hurricane, Hurricane Sandy, along the North East coast of the USA in 2012. Later, I was also able to assess structural damage on the coast of New Jersey from Hurricane Sandy. 

Below you can see the map I created of Hurricane Sandy's pathway/timeline. If you look closely, you can see via the symbology what category storm Sandy was along its path along with information on its wind (mph) and pressure (barometer) information. 


In the second part of the lab, I assessed the structural damage of Hurricane Sandy in a select area in New Jersey. I created a new point feature class and subsequent domain with categories no damage, affected, minor damage, major damage, and destroyed to categorize each parcel. After creating the points and designating their damage category, I analyzed the data future by determining what damage feel 0-100m, 100-200m, and 200-300m from the coast. 

1.      Created a new polyline feature class for the coastline to create polyline of the Atlantic coast.

2.      Created a new polygon feature class to box out the distance 0-100m, 100-200m, and 200-300m from the coast to our analysis area.

3.      Used select by attributes to create a new layer for each of the 3 distances.

4.      Spatial joined each of the 3 distance layers to the structure damage point feature class.

5.      Used select by attributes to determine the numbers for table below via the newly spatially joined tables.

Structure Damage Category

Count of Structures

0-100 m from coastline

Count of Structures

100-200 m from coastline

Count of Structures

200-300 m from coastline

No Damage

0

0

0

Affected

3

0

24

Minor Damage

0

4

17

Major Damage

0

32

4

Destroyed

8

5

0

Totals

11

41

45



I found on the coast (0-100m) was the worst damage, with entire buildings decimated and destroyed. As I moved away from the coast (200-300m) there was less structural damage and more inundation I assume, given the displacement of sand. I would want to do further analysis before trying to extrapolate the data as there are many details I do not know. This particular section may have been at the heart of the storm. Other buildings along the coast could have also used different building designs/architecture with higher hurricane ratings. There are too many unknown variables to confidently assume a relationship between distance to the coastline and structural damage at this time. 

View my ArcGis StoryMap here: https://arcg.is/1iGLaH. 

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