The balloon module of the Instrument will transform pre- and post- disaster management. For instance, in hurricane preparedness, the super-resolution imagery of imagery will allow auto-detection of loose roof tiles and other unsafe components; data mash-up will auto-locate owners and personnel to be alerted of problems. After a disaster, the Instrument's balloon units can launch where planes cannot take off, where drones cannot find fuel and remain aloft to search for survivors and assess damage.

The Instrument's imagery and data collection, processing, and analysis capabilities will lead to a better understanding of and improvement in forecast and warning communication for tropical storms and hurricanes. It will also provide new means for investigating ways for improving storm forecast communication to promote public safety and reduce hurricane costs.

The Instrument will enable research that advances the capabilities of cyber infrastructure to benefit disaster mitigation. The Hazards & Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina [http://webra.cas.sc.edu/hvri/] and research groups at the University of Miami (see letters) will utilize the Instrument in their work on Hurricane-Resilient Community Systems towards creation of an NSF Engineering Research Center joint with FIU.

The Instrument will enable urban infrastructure decision-making. As Letters exemplify, the City of South Miami [http://www.southmiamifl.gov/] will use the Instrument's super-resolution maps and advanced analytics capabilities to mitigate flooding from hurricane rains, storm surge, and sea level rise, by enabling better urban infrastructure planning; the County of Miami-Dade [http://miamidade.gov] will utilize the Instrument's super-resolution maps and analytic capabilities for disaster mitigation, emergency preparedness, planning, zoning, and law enforcement activities.

The team of Dr. Jeffrey Onsted [http://www2.fiu.edu/~jonsted/] at FIU and their extramural colleagues will utilize the Instrument for research on land use change along the urban rural interface, farmland retention, and farmland loss to suburban growth. This research touches upon the role of zoning in the mediation and regulation of land use change, which in turn has an impact on land resilience and vulnerability to hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Coastal research by the team of Nelson Melo [http://CAKE.fiu.edu/Melo] at FIU and their extramural colleagues will utilize the instrument research in the fields of oceanography and marine remote sensing. In particular, it will provide new ways to study oceanic surface and sub-surface phenomena. Sandy beaches provide a natural barrier between the ocean and inland communities, ecosystems, and resources. However, these dynamic environments move and change in response to winds, waves, and currents. During a hurricane, these changes can be large and sometimes catastrophic. High waves and storm surge act together to erode beaches and inundate low-lying lands, putting inland communities at risk [Doran, K.S.]. The Instrument will enable the identification of coastline areas likely to experience extreme and potentially hazardous erosion during a hurricane, as well as low-cost quick response to post-disaster coastal change.

References Cited

[SFL+12] K.S. Doran, H.F. Stockdon, K.L. Sopkin, D.M. Thompson, and N.G. Plant, 2012, National assessment of hurricane-induced coastal erosion hazards: Mid-Atlantic Coast: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2013-1131, 28 p.