RAPID DAMAGE ASSESSMENT (RDA) OF NEW ORLEANS PORT

RAPID DAMAGE ASSESSMENT (RDA) OF NEW ORLEANS PORT
AND INTERMODAL INFRASTRUCTURE USING DIGITAL GLOBE
SATELLITE IMAGERY, GIS AND FEATURE ANALYST
SOFTWARE
Presented By:
William F. Lyte, Kennedy/Jenks Consultants
Tyler Otto, Digital Globe Corporation
Dr. Christopher Lee, California State University Department of Geography
December 15, 2005
I.
Introduction
The recent events of Hurricane Katrina, in combination with other major natural disasters
in the U.S. and worldwide, have defined the need for rapid damage assessment of
affected areas.
The purpose of this technical paper is to show how relatively new, commercially
available types of satellite imagery, in combination with geographic information systems
and specialty analytical tools, can yield more rapid analysis of disaster zones.
In particular, this paper focuses on the Port of New Orleans, with lessons applied to other
U.S. ports. America’s ports are among its most critical gateways for the flow of
commerce to and from American business. Based on the experience of the Port of New
Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, its functionality can also be disrupted in several ways.
These include:
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Impeding navigation canals with sediment or obstacles.
Damage portside facilities such as container unloading cranes
Damage to roadways serving port truck traffic.
Damage to on-dock or near-dock rail systems.
The ability to assess this damage, and act effectively, in the immediate aftermath of
disasters, is critical to bring port facilities back into function. This assessment may not
be easily accomplished with ground based resources such as mobile teams, helicopters, or
airplanes. Roads may be blocked, weather can be a constraint, and such resources can be
in critically short supply. All of these circumstances occurred after Hurricane Katrina.
In addition to disaster response by emergency teams, the insurance industry requires
immediate analysis capability in order to justify payment of claims. This analysis requires
rapid screening techniques to prioritize and rank damaged areas. For example, these
screening techniques might include:
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Which areas are flooded
Where is substantial roof and other structural damage
Extent of such damage or implications for operability
Examples are shown in Figures A & B.
Figure A
There may also be public health and safety issues, particularly in regard to hazardous
chemical spills from petroleum and chemical facilities. These facilities are often
associated with port complexes on a worldwide basis, as tankers unload their liquid
cargoes into holding tanks at ports. Should a spill occur as a result of a natural, or other,
disaster, emergency response professionals need to know what has spilled and the extent
of that spill.
Figure B
Collectively, these circumstances dictate the need for rapid post-disaster analytical tools.
II.
Applying Satellite-Based Imagery in Conjunction with GIS to Prepare for
Disaster Analysis
Many planners are familiar with the use of LandSat satellite imagery (Multispectral
Scanner and Thematic Mapper), available from the Federal Government. Starting with
the launch of the first Landsat satellite in 1972, this imagery provided excellent
multispectral low resolution coverage of large areas of world, and became a standard for
evaluation of urban growth, resources management, and other large area applications.
Since the mid-1990s, an entirely new way of gathering land cover and land use
information has emerged for use in the U.S. and international markets. This has been
made possible by the availability of high resolution satellite imagery. Generally, the
imaging systems acquiring this data were developed for the U.S. military. They have a
need for rapid identification and assessment of facilities, vehicles, and changes in ground
situations within short time spans.
As the systems gained capability, the state of the art remained secret, and the older
imaging technology was allowed to be commercialized. Three major companies
eventually resulted, these being Space Imaging, a division of Lockheed Martin, Earth
Data and DigitalGlobe. Of the three, Digital Globe imagery offers the highest spatial
resolution, and is the focus of this technical paper.
III. Background of the Team
In 1999, to support the commercial use of this satellite imagery, a national research
project was funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Research and
Special Programs (RSPA). It became the National Consortium for Remote Sensing in
Transportation. Led by 13 U.S. universities and three federal laboratories, teams of
researchers applied advanced satellite imaging techniques to four study areas:
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Transportation Infrastructure
Traffic Movement
Disaster Management
Environmental Analysis
The results of these study areas can be viewed at www.ncrst.org.
Two of the authors of this technical paper, Dr. Christopher Lee, Director of the California
State University, Long Beach Remote Sensing Laboratory and a former NASA Visiting
Senior Scientist, and William Lyte of Kennedy/Jenks Consultants, served on the
Transportation Infrastructure team. This team, supported by NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, in association with U.C. Santa Barbara, applied remote sensing techniques to
assess the functionality of intermodal connectors to the Federal Highway System. The
study area of this project was the $2.5 billion Alameda Corridor, which links the Ports of
Los Angeles and Long Beach to the national railroad system. Both the Ports of Los
Angeles and Long Beach were participants in this study, along with Caltrans, and the
Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority.
A third participant on this technical paper, Mr. Tyler Otto of Digital Globe, was involved
in the Environmental Analysis team in the NCRST study. That team, led by Mississippi
State University, analyzed the environmental issues associated with the proposed
relocation of CSX Railroad’s rail line along the Gulf Coast to New Orleans. This is a rail
line which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina. He was supported in the analysis
and processing of imagery for this technical paper by Steve Wood, Dacian Hippelli and
other colleagues at Digital Globe.
These studies yielded a deeper understanding of the applications of remote sensing in
transportation system analysis, which has been applied to this technical paper.
IV.
Use of Digital Globe “Quickbird-2 Imagery in Development of Rapid
Disaster Analysis Capabilities for Ports and Intermodal Facilities
Digital Globe’s Quickbird-2 high resolution satellite imagery has unique capabilities for
both pre- and post-disaster evaluation of port and intermodal facilities. The Quickbird-2
satellite operates at an altitude of 280 miles. Its sensors cover the earth’s surface
approximately every five to eight days, (depending on latitude of area of interest,)
collecting satellite imagery selectively on a contract basis and otherwise. The satellite
can be tasked for specific data collection on a more frequent basis, as needed, such as in
the case of a disaster situation. In this case, the sensors on the satellite collect imagery at
an angle (off-nadir) versus a perpendicular collect (on-nadir). In either case, the images
collected provide an almost vertical (orthographic) view of the target area, which can
then be integrated with ground based analysis tools such as Geographic Information
Systems (GIS).
This collection accuracy and ease of use is important from two perspectives. The first is
cost, which can be from $10-30,000 for an entire region such as New Orleans or Los
Angeles, as compared with several hundred thousand dollars for aerial photography.
Aerial photography, commonly known as “digital orthophotography” has its own uses,
which include higher level of detail (6-inch resolution), when the cost is justified.
However, for larger areas, the aerial photography needs to be developed, aerotriangulated, scanned and ortho-rectified to be fully integrated into a GIS, which is a
lengthy and expensive process. In addition, the ability to collect, process and distribute
aircraft-based photography in the event of quickly unfolding disasters may be
problematic.
The Digital Globe imagery is also acquired in multiple “spectral bands”, specifically
visible blue, red, green and reflective or near-infrared. Each of these bands is valuable in
different types of analysis. For example, in near infrared, water shows up dark and flat,
and vegetation images as pink or red. So for analysis of flooded areas, or evaluation of
an area damaged by fire, near infrared can be very valuable.
For the purposes of disaster analysis of ports and intermodal facilities, these spectral
bands can be integrated to provide a full array of types of analyses, ranging from:
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Flooding
Damage to facilities
Road condition damage
Chemical leakage or spills
These are addressed in Figures C, D, E, F and G.
Figure C
Figure D
Figure E
The Digital Globe imagery is easily integrated with other spatial data in a Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) to provide a ready-to-use data set packed with analytic
capability. An popular example is the Google Earth system, which brings a user from a
global view rapidly to the street on which they live. Digital Globe is a partner with
Google in the deployment of Google Earth and provides most of the content for the geospatially enabled search engine.
V.
Building a Rapid Damage Assessment Capability at a Public Agency
In this section, we will discuss building a baseline Rapid Damage Assessment for a port.
Satellite imagery is a valuable tool in this process. First, however, a basic internal
assessment of operations and capabilities need to be performed.
As with any other endeavor, some organization needs to take charge of the program
development. Port authorities are the logical entity in this case, given that critical
shipping, roadway, and railways terminate at their port. They are the landowner or
landlord for major functional activities such as container transfer and storage, petroleum
and bulk materials shipping, and transfer of automobiles.
Therefore, this technical paper is directed to development of Rapid Damage Assessment
capability by port authorities.
Figure F
Figure G
Building Blocks of a Rapid Damage Assessment Capability. The principal building
blocks of a Rapid Damage Assessment capability are the following:
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Develop a full inventory of critical systems
Model and inventory the system elements at full functionality
Develop contingency plans for each functional areas
These are discussed below, using examples from Digital Globe and GIS overlays.
1. Develop a full inventory of critical systems
Every port has common elements, as discussed below. These critical systems would
include:
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Shipping channels, including depth estimates
Waterfront structures, including piers, wharves and jettys
Major operating facilities at the port, including container terminals, break bulk,
liquid bulk, dry bulk and automobile facilities
Equipment operating at those facilities, such as cranes, port transfer equipment,
pipelines and conveyors.
Roadways and bridges accessing the port, including bridges across shipping
channels
Railroad yards, tracks, bridges and support facilities, both on and adjacent to the
port.
Figures G, H, I and J are Digital Globe satellite imagery of these types of port facilities
in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina.
2. Model and inventory the system elements at full functionality
The port would want to assess how its functions work at maximum capacity. This would
particularly include:
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Shipping channels which, if blocked by debris or sediment, would impede ships
or barges.
Critical bridges linking the port highways and rail to landside infrastructure
On-dock rail and roadway systems on which the port is dependent.
Critical loading/unloading equipment such as heavy cranes.
The port would also want to evaluate off-port critical infrastructure, such as upstream
river channels, rail systems and highways, without which it could not operate.
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Figure G
Figure H
Figure I
Figure J
3. Develop contingency plans and asset inventories for each functional area
In a disaster, no one can foresee all the possible consequences. However, based on the
inventory developed above, an inventory of the following could help to bring a port back
to partial operability:
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Identification of support infrastructure which could be rapidly brought into
operation. This might require the construction of improvements, movement of
facilities, or removal of obstacles.
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Staging of equipment in critical areas of a port, such as dredges or specialty repair
equipment, that could not be moved to that location in a disrupted operational
situation.
Figures K and L show images that are well located staging areas for emergency
equipment.
Figure K
Figure L
In all these aspects of Rapid Damage Assessment, remotely-sensed satellite imagery
linked with remote sensing can play a critical role.
V.
Obtaining Stakeholder “Buy-in” Using Remote Sensing Imagery
Remote sensing imagery presents a unifying view of a port property and surrounding
areas. Its “big picture” capability brings the entire picture of a port and intermodal
operation to all the stakeholders in a ports continued success.
In two scenarios, remote sensing is used as a support tool for port emergency planning.
In the first example (pre-disaster), the imagery is used to bring all parties to the table and
work together from a common base of understanding of the port facilities (see Figures
M, N and O.
In the second scenario, (post disaster), remote sensing is used to unify the response on an
emergency basis.
Scenario One – Pre-Disaster Planning - In a non-disaster environment, each of the port
stakeholders view their operations as separate. The shipping companies see only the edge
of the dock, or their terminals nearby. The railroads focus only on their on-dock and offdock systems. The ports generally own the roads and bridges within the ports, but past
the port boundary, they are either a city, state or federal transportation artery.
Independent trucking companies come and go, taking and delivering cargo. The ports are
also either a landlord over port tenant properties, or they own and operate them
themselves. Many ports are also unionized, with work forces handling the throughput of
cargo.
Beyond that, there are governmental agencies, each with their own charter and
jurisdiction. U.S. Customs and the Office of Homeland Security, including the U.S.
Coast Guard, have the responsibility for cargo clearance and security. Local law
enforcement agencies have their own jurisdiction, as do state and local environmental,
fish and wildlife and other such organizations. Everyone knows their place.
In this case, remote sensing data, overlaid with other spatial data in a GIS, can be used to
bring about agreement on what really is happening at the port. Seeing the big picture, in
a functional way, with multi-spectral imagery and geospatial data can bring a whole new
awareness to all the stakeholders of a port. For example, a high resolution satellite image
of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, overlain by GIS and a LiDAR-derived
digital elevation model (DEM), cold drive tsunami inundation scenarios. As the
stakeholders as a group saw how, at specific tsunami wave heights, certain areas of the
port would be destroyed, while others would become critical to port functionality, they
would view their combined port assets differently.
The same applies to port planning for progressively larger ships, which, while not a
disaster, will stretch Los Angeles/Long Beach transportation infrastructure to the
breaking point. Visual simulations of cargo growth at particular terminals will pinpoint
pending effects on nearby infrastructure, which might not have yet been planned for.
When full advantage is taken of the multi-band capabilities of the satellite imagery, new
combinations arise.
Figure M
Figure N
Figure O
Scenario Two – Disaster at the Port. Suddenly, the time for multi-stakeholder port
planning is past. The smoothly operating system is sent into shock by a hurricane, a
tsunami, an earthquake, a terrorist attack.. The entire goods movement mission of the
port, must be accomplished with crippled systems. Now, whatever facilities are
functional must be woven together to move cargo through to the public awaiting relief.
Cargoes must be shipped, or their owners face economic ruin. This is precisely what
occurred in New Orleans, where, with the port channels, rail and facilities shut down,
grain shipments bound for overseas markets languished on barges along the Mississippi
River.
In such a situation, without leadership and the larger perspective that remote sensing
imagery can bring, each of the many stakeholders marshals their own staff, and sets off
on whatever plan they feel will best serve their interests. Planning and resources that
could have been used to establish an effective contingency are now no longer available.
The result is complete loss of functionality, and massive economic disruption.
In New Orleans, and several other worldwide disasters, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean
Tsunami, Digital Globe became an important point of reference, making disaster imagery
available to agencies on its website and through other means. Damaged systems could be
identified, and action brought to bear, to fix them.
VI.
Case Studies of Digital Globe Disaster Response
As Digital Globe’s archival library of natural disaster effects continues to grow, it
becomes a major asset for agency disaster response. In this section, Digital Globe’s
imagery, integrated with GIS, evaluate damaged port and intermodal infrastructure. The
four band high resolution imagery is particularly valuable in bringing out key information
which will help the ports return to operation.
Figure P - New Orleans levees boken and under repair, flooding the City near the ports
Figure Q - Hurricane damaged North Carolina ship channels silted reduce port operation.
Figure R - Highway bridges are wiped out by the Indian Ocean Tsunami.
Figure P
Figure Q
Figure R
VII.
Applying Specialty Analytical Techniques for Use with Remote Sensing
Data
With the level of imagery capability available from Digital Globe, new products are
being developed to take advantage of it. Among these is Feature Analyst ™ , specialty
image enhancement software for use with satellite imagery or other raster data types..
During the 1999-2003 USDOT remote sensing studies mentioned previously, Feature
Analyst software was used to enhance high resolution satellite imagery of the Alameda
Corridor. Using Feature Analyst™ , under the guidance of JPL image processing
experts Drs. Nevin Bryant and Thomas Logan, a process was developed for computerized
counting and sorting stacks, by color, shape and size, of shipping containers at the Ports
of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Building rooftops were analyzed along major
intermodal connectors to assess the appropriateness of development next to freight
corridors.
Since that time, new breakthroughs have taken place in the use of Feature Analyst ™
software. Dr. Christopher Lee, a co-author of this technical paper, has a present research
project underway to apply Feature Analyst™ to port infrastructure at the Ports of Los
Angeles and Long Beach. The project is funded through the USC METRANS Program.
Dr. Lee’s initial objectives in this project include:
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Developing techniques for the extraction of features (roads, rail lines, structures,
cranes and containers) from Digital Globe high spatial resolution imagery for the
development and updating of GIS data layers.
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Investigating the synergy of LiDAR integration in the feature extraction, digital
elevation model development, and data visualization processes.
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Applying the results of the first two steps in the development of an initial GISdriven decision support system (DSS). A proposal to initiate this project (with
Co-Investigator Dr. Suzanne Wechsler) is currently under review by two funding
sources.
VIII. Directions for the Future.
The objective for 2006 is to apply the lessons of the Port of New Orleans, using Digital
Globe imagery and Feature Analyst™ software, to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long
Beach. The end deliverable will be an initial DSS with a Rapid Damage Assessment
prototype tool for port disaster planning. In this initiative, the team will work closely
with both ports, as well as with major port industry organizations such as the Harbor
Association of Industry and Commerce, and the California Marine and Intemodal
Transportation Strategic Advisory Committee.
A second objective is to establish a virtual port imagery and GIS library, available
through Digital Globe in association with Kennedy/Jenks Consultants and Cal State Long
Beach. This library will be available to port directors on-line, beginning with the West
Coast, and will be used for port emergency preparedness. As the Rapid Damage
Assessment prototype is further refined, it will also be made available through the virtual
port imagery and associated Decision Support System.
About the Authors:
William F. Lyte. Mr. Lyte serves as Senior Client Manager with Kennedy/Jenks
Consultants in Irvine, California. Kennedy/Jenks is a major U.S. engineering and
environmental firm with specialization in maritime and intermodal practice. From 19992003, Mr. Lyte managed a major federally-funded remote sensing analysis of the
Alameda Corridor intermodal connectors, in association with NASA/JPL and a national
university consortium (www.ncrst.org), including CSU Long Beach. His 20+ years of
work within the ports and intermodal arena includes current service as
Secretary/Treasurer of the California Marine and Intermodal Transportation System
Advisory Council (CALMITSAC). For CALMITSAC, he is the principal editor of the
2005/6 report to the California Legislature on ports and intermodal activities, including
capital requirements, environmental, security, economic and operational issues.
Tyler Otto. Mr. Otto serves as Manager of Business and Partner Management at Digital
Globe Corporation in Longmont, Colorado. He has been employed by Digital Globe
since 2003, less than two years after the successful launch of the firm’s Quickbird2
imaging satellite. He is focused on sales and distribution of imagery in governmental and
commercial marketplaces, and technical advisory services to Digital Globe customers. He
works extensively with Digital Globe partners and resellers that have ordered imagery
before and after Hurricane Katrina over the area for damage assessment mapping and
other analyses. He served in the U.S. Navy, with specialization in engineering, weapons
systems and remote sensing. He holds a B.A. in Physics from Nebraska Wesleyan
University.
Christopher T. Lee. Dr. Lee received a BS in Geography from Northern Arizona
University 1978, a MA in Geography from CSU Fullerton 1982 and a PhD in Geography
from the University of Arizona in 1990. Chris Lee has over twenty years of university
level teaching experience in remote sensing, GIS, and physical geography. After teaching
at NAU and the University of Arizona from 1984-1990 he spent 1991-2000 as an
Assistant, Associate and Full Professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
He is currently a Professor in the Department of Geography at California State University
Long Beach where he moved in August 2000. His current research interests are in remote
sensing applications in transportation and geospatial workforce development. Dr. Lee
was a Fulbright Scholar to Egypt in 1995-1996 and a Visiting Senior Scientist assigned to
the Applications Divison at NASA Headquarters in 1999. He is a member of IEEE, Royal
Geographical Society, American Society of Photogrammetry, and the Explorers Club.