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DEZ OUT

2010 2011

ItwasonlylastmonththatIwroteabouthurricaneresistantdesigninmyreportontheAlabama
AIAAnnual Convention, held in Orange Beach,Alabama from July 31 toAugust 2. During my
drive to the convention center along the coast of Alabama, I had witnessed firsthand the
enormousdevastationcausedbyHurricaneIvanlastyear,whichwasstillverymuchinevidence,
andIdescribedsomeofthesessionsattheconferencethatwererelatedtohurricanes,disaster
assessment,reviewingbuildingdamage,andsoon.Littledidanyonepresentatthatconvention
knowthatafarmoredeadlyhurricanewouldsoonhit and wash out practically the entire city of
New Orleans, and that it would be immediately followed by another powerful hurricane which
would worsen the damage and devastate other areas of the Gulf Coast. While the immediate
needs of the regions affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita are monetary contributions and
volunteerstoassistintherescue,relief,andrehabilitationefforts,itisgoingtobeatremendous
challenge over the long run to rebuild New Orleans and other affected areas along the Gulf
Coast.
While the technological resources we currently have at our disposal were evidently not
sophisticated enough to prevent the disastrous consequences of the recent hurricanes, can
technologyplayamorecriticalroleinthefutureinallowingustodesigncitiesandbuildingsthat
don'tsufferthesamefateNewOrleansdid?Thisissueofthe"BuildingtheFuture"serieslooks
athowtechnologyisbeingusedrightnowintherelief,rehabilitation,andreconstructionefforts
along the Gulf Coast, and what technologies we might need in the future for cities prone to
naturaldisasterstocombatthemmoreeffectively.
Let us first look at a brief history of hurricanes along the Gulf Coast and New Orleans in
particular.
HurricanesintheGulfCoast,andtheVulnerabilityofNewOrleans
Prior to Katrina and Rita, thirtyfour major hurricanes have crossed the Gulf coast since 1900,
from Texas to the Florida Panhandle. Of these, only two hurricanes have been deadlier than
Katrina:the1900hurricaneinGalveston,Texaswhichkilledover8000peopleandleveledlarge
portions of the city and the 1928 hurricane in Lake Okeechobee, Florida which killed close to
2000 people. Katrina's death toll has already crossed 1000, which makes it the deadliest
hurricaneinrecenttimes.ThetwocostliesthurricanespriortoKatrinawerehurricaneAndrew in
1992,whichstruckFloridaandLouisianaandcausedanestimated$26.5billonindamage,and
hurricaneCharley,whichstruckFloridalastyearandcaused$15billonindamage.Comparedto
these numbers, the damage caused by Katrina is many times overestimated to be as high as
$200billion.
Bynow,weallknowaboutNewOrleans'unusualgeographythatmadeitsovulnerabletobeing
devastated by a strong hurricaneit is located below sea level it has Lake Pontchartrain to its
north the Mississippi river runs through the middle of town and it is bounded on the south by
theGulfofMexico,wheremanyofthehugestormsoriginate.Whatisnotsowellknownisthat
chillingpredictionsofjusthowbadthedevastationwouldbewhichhavecometruewithKatrina
have been made by experts for several years. See the article "The Lost City of New Orleans?"
publishedin December 2000 , and the five part series "Washing Away" published in June 2002
in The TimesPicayune . In particular, Part 2 of the latter series, entitled "The Big One,"
predictedthatamajorhurricanecould decimate the region, but flooding from even a moderate
storm could kill thousandsit was just a matter of time. The writers cited the example of
hurricaneGeorgesin1998,aCategory2stormthatonlygrazedNewOrleans,butstillcauseda
lotofdamageandpushedwavestowithinafootofthetopoftheleveesthatprotectedthecity.
Anystrongerstormonaslightlydifferentcoursecouldrealizetheworstcasescenario:hundreds
of billions of gallons of lake water pouring over the levees into an area averaging 5 feet below
sealevelwithnonaturalmeansofdrainage.AndthisisexactlywhathappenedwithKatrina.
Despite the many technological advances that society has made as a whole, it seems that we
are still very much at the mercy of nature.Technology could not really help to fortify the city of
NewOrleansanditsbuildingsfromthedestructioncausedbyhurricane Katrina, even though a
calamity of this nature had been predicted for many years. So what is lacking in our
technologicalrepertoire?Whattoolsareneededtodesignbuildingsandcitiesthatcanwithstand
natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and so on? And until we have these, can
technology at least help in planning, directing, and monitoring evacuations better, so that we

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don'thavepeoplehelplesslystrandedastheywereinNewOrleansor100milebackupslikethe
kind Houston had in anticipation of hurricane Rita, and in postdisaster rescue and relief
operations? The next section provides an overview of some existing technologies that are
helping,followedbyaconcludingsectionsuggestingfuturetechnologiesthatweneedtoavoida
repeatofaKatrinalikedisaster.
HowTechnologyisCurrentlyHelping
Intheimmediatewakeofthehurricanes,varioustechnologytoolswereused,firstand foremost,
in search and rescue operations, many of which were developed specifically for these tasks.
These include pintsize robots that can move through crevices in a collapsed building to bring
water, light and twoway communications to trapped survivors miniature robot planes and
helicopters that can survey the scene from above and send wireless video back to the team in
the field sensors that can detect signs of life from 3 feet away, based on thermal imaging or
even the smell of a survivor's faint breathing devices and software that can turn walkietalkies
intoInternetgridswhenthephonesareoutandsensorsystemsthatcansniffoutpublic health
threats in the storm's aftermath. (Some of these technologies were also deployed after the
tsunami that hit SouthAsia at the beginning of the year.) Software tools are being developed
suchasametasearchengine for survivor lists and interactive maps that match the needy with
what's needed. For more information on these technologies, see these two MSNBC articles:
"ScientistsbringgadgetstopostKatrinadisasterscene"and"Hardwareand software makes life
easierforrescuersandrescued."
A critical need in disaster response is that of enabling and restoring communications, which is
where technologies developed by networking companies come in. In the hurricaneaffected
areas, briefcasesized mobile communication kits from Cisco, for example, are being deployed.
These contain a packaged set of technologies designed to be easily transportable and provide
mobile Internet Protocol (IP)based wired or wireless data and voice connectivity for areas that
have lost or do not have a communications infrastructure. This allows rapid communications in
disasterorremotelocationstobesetupwithinminutesofarrival.
Another critical technology is GIS (Geographic Information Systems), which is used to view,
analyze, and manage geographic knowledge that is represented using a series of information
sets. The information sets include interactive maps and globes databases of geographic data
such as features, networks, topologies, terrains, surveys, and attributes data models capturing
the schema, behavior, and integrity rules of geographic data and collections of procedures for
manipulating GIS data for analysis and to automate common tasks. GIS links location to
information (such as people to addresses, buildings to parcels, or streets within a network) and
layers that information to provide a better understanding of how it all interrelates. One of the
waysinwhichthistechnologywasusedintheposthurricanesearchandrecoveryeffortswasto
provide "geoaddressing"supplementing street addresses provided by stranded individuals with
longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates which could then be used by emergency responders to
locate them more easily. GIS technology is also being used to provide mapping support for a
variety of governmental agencies, such as uptodate maps of the New Orleans levee system
and geocoded addresses for water pumps located in the city for the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.Mapsandspatialdataareupdateddailyandcontinuetobedeliveredtovarioustask
forcesfromdifferentstateandfederalagenciestoaidinrecoveryactivities.(Seethis article for
moreinformationonhowGISisbeingused.)
While traditional GIS and mapping software vendors such as ESRI,Autodesk, Intergraph, and
Mapinfo have been providing data, maps, images, software, and other resources for disaster
response, a recently introduced technology from Google called Google Earth is being
increasingly used to capture and share geospatial data related to the hurricanes. The Google
Earth technology combines satellite imagery, the Google Maps technology, and the power of
Google Search to provide access to geographic information globally. You can type an address
andzoomrightintothelocation,searchforpointsofinterest,getdrivingdirections,aswellastilt
and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings. While the basic service is free, there are
additionaladdonsthatcanbepurchasedincludingGoogleEarthPlus,whichadds GPS device
support,theabilitytoimportspreadsheets,drawingtools,andbetterprintingandGoogleEarth
Pro for professional and commercial users needing location information in various industries,
includingAEC and real estate. Google Earth hasadedicatedhurricane page where imagery of
theimpactofhurricaneKatrinaisbeingconstantlyadded, supplied by agencies such as NOAA
(National Oceanic andAtmosphericAdministration), NGA (National GeospatialAgency), Space
Imaging, Digital Globe, as well as by individual users. This imagery can be viewed as "image
overlays"inGoogleEarth,i.e.,theyloadontopofthepreKatrinaNewOrleansbasemap (see
Figure 1). It is proving to be an effective way to integrate data about the impact of the
hurricanesfromvarioussourcesaswellasdisseminateittoanyonewhoneedsit.

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Largerimage

Figure1.AnoverlayinGoogleEarthprovidedbyDigitalGlobe,showingtheimpactofHurricaneKatrinaon

NewOrleans.

One of the major problems facing the reconstruction effort along the Gulf Coast is to
understandtheactualexistingconditionsoftheareainwhichworkwillbedone.Withoutreliable
"asis"documentation,teamswillhavetomanuallymeasuretheexistingdimensionsinthefield,
which will be timeconsuming, expensive, error prone and potentially unsafe due to inherent
hazards. This is where technologies to document asis conditions using laser scanning,
developed by vendors such as Quantapoint, will be useful. Quantapoint specializes in the
offshore, power, process and architectural markets, and has already committed to providing its
services to restore operations to the significantly damaged process industries in the Gulf Coast
region. Its asbuilt laser documentation provides more accurate and complete information for
design, fabrication and construction decisions, including accurate dimensional fitup, pre
fabrication and clash detection. Figure 2 shows a 3D model of an offshore platform created by
Quantapoint's laser scanning technology in its Prism 3D interface, an application for managing,
sharing,andextractingdimensionalandotherinformationfroma3Dlaserscan.

Largerimage

Figure2.A3DmodelofanoffshoreplatformcreatedbyQuantapoint'slaserscanningtechnologyinits

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Prism3Dinterface.(Courtesy:Quantapoint)

FutureTechnologiesforCombatingHurricanesandOtherDisasters
While technologies for predicting hurricanes and other weatherrelated phenomena are already
sophisticatedandareroutinelyusedbymeteorologists,wealsoneedbettersimulationtoolsthat
can present accurate 3D real time simulations of various disaster scenarios such as flooding,
forest fires, toxic gas spreading, oil spills, dams breaking etc., in neighborhoods and cities. I
came across one promising technology that can begin to address this need: the 3D NGRAIN
technology, which has been licensed by Aero Geometrics Ltd., a Vancouverbased mapping
company. With this technology, a 3D image of an entire city, complete with buildings and
topologicalinformation,canbecapturedinafilesizeofapproximately10MB(smallenoughto
bepostedonline)andvarioussimulationscanberun.Forexample,theupperimageinFigure3
showsa3DimageofthecityofMiamiasitcurrentlyis,untouchedbydisaster,whilethelower
imageshowswhatareaswouldbefloodedifthewaterlevelroseto10feet.Thelevelofflooding
can be manipulated interactively in the application, allowing city officials using it to predict the
progress of the disaster should a flood actually occur, see which buildings were the most
vulnerable, and determine which areas to evacuate first. Had a technology like this been
deployedinNewOrleanspriortoKatrina,theevacuationwarningscouldhavebeengivenahead
oftimeandinamuchmoresystematicmanner.

Largerimage

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Figure3.TheNGRAINtechnologyusedtosimulateapotentialfloodingdisasterinthecityofMiami.

Withregardtotheconstructionofindividualbuildingsandstructuressuchaslevees,flood walls,
bridges,andsoon,therenodearthofacademicresearchandprofessionalknowledgeonhowto
make them better capable of withstanding hurricanes. For example, the PATH (Partnership for
Advancing Technology in Housing) website lists a number of building techniques to improve
hurricane resistance there is a proposal to use "smart concrete" to strengthen levees and
monitor their reliability computer models are being developed to predict hurricane damage in
buildingswhich in turn can be used to guide the development of hurricanewithstanding
structuresandsoon.(Linkstoseveralsuchresourcescan be found on the ASCE website and
the iCivilEngineer website). What is missing is an integration of this knowhow with the tools
architects and engineers are using to design buildings and other structures, and this is where
AECtechnologycomesin.AsIsuggested inthelast"Building the Future" article, BIM's ability
to support analysis and evaluation of buildings is going to yield much more significant and far
reaching benefits in the long term as compared to its short term benefits of producing a better
coordinated and more accurate drawing set more speedily and efficiently. We can capture
various hurricaneresistant design principles (or earthquakeresistant design principles in areas
prone to earthquakes) in analysis tools and run our BIM models through them for receiving
feedback on how well the design meets the selected criteria as well as suggestions for
improvement.How soon this scenario can be realized is hard to predict, but it can only happen
onceintelligent,semanticallyrichrepresentationsofbuildingsbecomesthenormratherthanthe
exception. So it would certainly help if the building industry could transition to BIM as soon as
possible.
WhatwealsoneedisanextensionoftheBIMconcepttothelevelofneighborhoodsandcities,
perhaps in the form of a "city information model" (CIM) which can capture all the critical data
about a city's geographical location, topology, major roads, bridges, buildings, and so on in an
intelligent format. In time, we could also find a smart way of integrating the BIM models of
individual buildings within the city's CIM, so that we have a highly accurate and detailed digital
replicaofacitywhichcanbesubjectedtosophisticatedanalysisandsimulations.Wecouldthen
predicttheimpactofahurricane,earthquake,tsunami,gasleak,bioterroristhazard,oranyother
kind of conceivable disaster not only on the city as a whole but on individual buildings and
neighborhoods within the city as well. Just as BIM technology can help to better integrate
different aspects of a building such as space, structure, mechanical systems, and so on, CIM
technologycouldeventuallyhelptobetterintegratethedifferentstructuresandserviceswithina
city,allowingittooperateinamoreholisticmanneranddealwithadisastermoreeffectively.
AbouttheAuthor
Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes.She has a Ph.D. inArchitecture from UC
Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC
technology.Shecanbereachedatlachmi@aecbytes.com.
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