New Mapper Opens Up Access to New York State Flood Planning
A new, easy-to-use mapping tool will make it easier for individuals and communities to plan for floods and sea level rise. Developed by NASA’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) at the Columbia Climate School Sisson, a map plotter that visualizes spatial data for nearly the entire New York State infrastructure (except New York City). New York Flood Impact Support System Application (New FIDSS) is unique in that it contains digitized data for every building footprint in the included area. It is highly interactive and accessible, ensuring that historically underrepresented communities can develop comprehensive flood scenarios for planning, response and decision-making.
A zoomed-in area of Newburgh, New York, located in the lower Hudson River basin, shows infrastructure along the river that is vulnerable to flooding. Source: NYS FIDSS Mapper
NYS FIDSS Mapper’s simple interface means that users don’t need GIS knowledge or complex software – just Internet access.This expands the potential user base and allows communities with fewer resources to improve their flood planning capabilities in line with the new goals NASA Open Science more active Openly share software, data and knowledge Promote inclusion and improve social justice.The mapper includes a CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index, allowing users to see the social vulnerability of flood-affected areas. The index shows fine-grained information on the social status of the population in a given area, including economic level, family membership, ethnic minority status, place of residence, English comprehension, and accessibility to transportation—details of social life can provide basic insight into the relative vulnerability of a population. insight. This helps target flood planning resources and deliver assistance to areas of greatest need—whether before, during, or after a flood event.
NYS FIDSS Mapper in full screen mode. Users can select features in the map to display a window with detailed information about each feature.
NYS FIDSS Mapper Project Based Results New York State Building Footprint and Flood Analysis, which provides infrastructure data for all New York State counties except New York City.It also includes data for areas bordering the lower Hudson River basin and Westchester’s Long Island Sound coastline, from Hudson River Flood Impact Decision Support Systema mapping tool for flood assessment developed by CIESIN New York Stock Exchange. The mapper also provides local-level infrastructure, flooding, and socioeconomic data layers from the Northeast Cities Climate Risk Coalition (run), whose members from academia, including CIESIN, conducted stakeholder-driven research with support from NOAA to reduce climate vulnerability in Northeastern US cities.
The lead developer of the NYS FIDSS Mapper is a CIESIN Senior Research Associate Juan Martinez and GIS Developer/Senior Systems Analyst Kate McManus.
