Community-based Disaster Information

Management

Dr. Shu-Ching Chen ProfessorSchool of Computing and Information Sciences, FIUEmail: chens@cs.fiu.eduChair, Technical Committee on Multimedia Computing (TCMC), IEEE Computer SocietyMember, Steering Committee, IEEE Transactions on Multimedia

Outline

Community-based Projects Business Continuity Information Network

(BCIN) Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model (FPHLM) An Interactive 3D Visualization System for

Hurricane Storm Surge

Business Continuity Information Network (BCIN)

A web based software that helps the County Business Recovery Program communicate, share information and collaborate on disaster events with the private sector

Help the businesses to better assess the impact to the community and help business find resources to recovery faster

Provide a gathering place for businesses to report on available resources (products/services) they can provide

Collect information about damage in the community immediately following disaster event

And much more… www.bizrecovery.org

BCIN - Track the status of critical services over multiple counties

BCIN - Build a Broad PartnershipFour Counties EOC (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm

Beach, Monroe)More than 150 companies (IBM, AT&T, FloridaFIRST,

Wal-Mart, etc.)FEMA Private Sector Office

Recognized BCIN under successful models and best practices in public-private partnerships

Community Activities:Joint county exercises (March and May 2008)Miami-Dade EM Business Recovery Program Training

(2009)Private-Public partnership in Palm Beach County (2010)Statewide Hurricane Exercise

Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model (FPHLM)

Developed by a multi-disciplinary team of experts in the fields of meteorology, wind and structural engineering, computer science, statistics, finance, and actuarial science

Simulate and project how, where and when, hurricanes form, their wind field and intensity, their track, how winds interact with different types of structures, and how much expected insured loss damage they can cause

The first and the only public hurricane projection model

FPHLM - Impact on Community & Industry

Model employed by Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) in homeowner insurance rate-making policy (critical issue for Floridians)

Enables OIR to use an open and public model developed without the influence from either the industry or state regulators

315 runs of the model requested by OIR for rate filing

Insurance companies have requested runs of the model 40 times

An Interactive 3D Visualization System for Hurricane Storm

Surge

Integration and Visualization System (Storm Surge + Meteorological + Topographical + Road Data)

Community OutreachTwo videos covering a 42-hour period as a

category 5 hurricane passes over the city of Tampa, FL, with winds that reach a peak velocity of 146.88 mph and a max. storm surge height of 27.13 feet have been showcased by the Tampa NWS at:Press conference at the Hillsborough County EOC on May 14,

2010Hurricane Kickoff Meeting for Critical Employees of the TSA at

the Tampa Intl. AirportPresentation at the Florida Governor’s Hurricane ConferenceUniversity of Tampa Emergency Preparedness meeting on June

2, 2010Etc.

Student Achievements Student Achievements:

Chengcui Zhang Associate Professor, University of

Alabama at Birmingham (2004)Min Chen

Assistant Professor, University of Montana (2007)

Jianhua Yan, Software Engineer, eBay (2007)

Na Zhao Assistance Vice President, State

Street Corporation (2007)Kasturi Chatterjee

Software Engineer, LinkedIn (2010)Fausto Fleites

2010 Top Technology Student of the Year (GMCC)

The Outstanding Graduate Award for Undergraduate Study (2009)

Student Engagement: Student internships at

Miami-Dade EM (BCIN) PhD/Undergrad.

development teams (BCIN, FPHLM, Animation)

Allow students take proactive role and propose ideas and solutions

Fausto Fleites began to lead the FPHLM as an undergraduate

Jairo Pava leads Storm Visualization System