Documentation for the St. Tammany Parish
Emergency Operations Center
REACT, the Realtime Emergency Action Coordination Tool, is a web-based
geographic analysis tool which assists with rapid planning, response,
and recovery during a disaster by providing on demand maps and reports
which quantify the effects of an event.
This document provides a quick walkthrough to use the various tools in
REACT and how to use them.
REACT provides three methods for delineating a disaster zone:
1. Flood Inundation Tool (Manual and Automated)
2. Disaster Polygon Tool
3. Disaster Point Radius Tool
The Manual Flood Inundation Tool allows you to select any point in the
Parish, enter an inundation level above flood stage for the nearest
water way or body of water, and then view a map with the estimated
inundation based on elevation for that area. You can then query the
inundated area for U.S. Census information affected by the inundation
or any other database with geographic relevance to the affected area.
The Automated Flood Inundation Tool monitors stream gauges every few
minutes, hours, or days throughout the Parish. If a stream gauge
measures a dangerous water level the system prepares a Flood Inundation
model run for that area. A link to that model run is sent to
everyone on a designated mailing list. Everyone who receives the
e-mail can then visit the web page, trigger the run, and view the same
output as the Manual Flood Inundation Model. This tool is a
proactive way to monitor potential problem areas during an event and
only be notified if a situation is likely to occur.
The Disaster Polygon Tool allows you to define an impact area for an
event for which no model is currently available. An example of
this type of event is a tornado. After this type of event the
affected area can be drawn directly on the map and queried for
population and property statistics.
The Disaster Point Radius Tool is similar to the Disaster Polygon Tool
except it allows you to click a point on a Parish map and then define a
radius in miles (or fractions of miles) for the impact area.
It is important to note that more tools based on other environmental or
scenario models can be created and added to REACT.
This screenshot shows the initial REACT tools page. The current
location of this page on the St. Tammany Emergency Operations Center
network is:
Flood Inundation Tool - Manual
Analysis
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The flood inundation tool allows you to estimate potential flooding at
any location in the Parish by defining a flood inundation level in
feet, clicking a starting point for the inundation on a map, and
waiting for the results.
Instructions:
1. Select the "Zoom In" tool from the toolbar above the map.
2. Click-and-drag a box or just click on the map to zoom into an area
of interest.
3. Enter an "Inundation Level" in feet in the box to the right of the
map.
4. Select the "Inundation Model" tool from the tool bar above the map.
5. Click a starting point on the map. The model may run for up to 10 minutes.
6. When the model is complete the inundated area will appear on the map.
7. A yellow star denotes the area you clicked as a starting point.
8. Subsequent runs following the instructions above will create more
inundation polygons on the map. Different shades of blue ranging
from dark to light signify relative depth. Lighter blue equals
shallower water.
9. Clicking the "Query Inundation" button above the map produces a
census report within the affected area.
Flood Inundation Tool - Automated
Analysis
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St. Tammany currently has 19 stream gauges throughout the Parish
including 7 USGS gauges and 12 gauges installed by the Parish.
REACT monitors these gauges for dangerous water levels which could lead
to flooding.
If the safe level of one of the streams is topped everyone on a
customizable e-mail list is sent an e-mail similar to the following:
Upon clicking on this link you are taken to a mapping web page which is
configured to run the model. To begin the model click the
"Process" button to the right of the map:
When the model is complete a yellow star will appear on the Parish map
to identify the location of the inundation estimation:
If you zoon in on the yellow star you can view the details of the model
run. Clicking on the "Query Inundation" tool in the toolbar above
the map will produce a census report for the affected area.
To change the stream gauge thresholds or modify the e-mail notification
list go to the following page located at: http://show.nvs-inc.com/REACT/StreamGaugeAlerts.jsp
The Disaster Polygon Tool allows you to create an ad-hoc impact area
which can be useful in any type of disaster. The impact area can
then be queried to create a U.S. Census Bureau report or any other type
of report relevant to the area.
Instructions
1. Zoom into an area of interest on the Parish map.
2. Select the "Draw Polygon" tool from the toolbar above the map.
3. Click points on the map to create any shape of polygon on the map.
NOTE: The lines of the polygon must not cross each other.
Once the impact area has been defined click the "Query Polygon" tool
above the map to produce a report on the people and property affected
by the disaster.
Disaster Point Radius Tool
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Similar to the polygon impact tool the Point Radius tool allows you to
create a point as a source for an event such as a chemical spill and
then create a radius in miles around the point as an impact area.
You can then query that impact area against a geographic database to
find out important information needed to prepare, respond to, or
recover from an event in that area.
Instructions
1. Zoom to an area of interest on the map.
2. Select the "Draw Point" button on the toolbar above the map.
3. Enter a radius in miles in the box to the right of the map.
4. Click the "Update Buffer" button below the radius entry box to
define the impact area.
5. Click the "Query Point" button to produce an impact report similar
to the other tools.
This document describes the current
REACT tool set as of August 2006.
For questions contact:
Craig Harvey, CIO
NVision Solutions Inc.
Suite 217, Building 1103
NASA Stennis Space Center, MS 39529
Phone: 228-688-2205
Cell: 228-342-8395
Fax: 228-688-3843
E-mail: charvey@nvs-inc.com
