By Aaron Dubrow
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We may not be able to prevent hurricanes from occurring, but we can improve our ability to predict them, move people out of harm's way, respond quickly to their aftermath and build our homes and infrastructure in a way that can survive the worst nature can throw at us.
A new tool called DesignSafe is helping to do so. A web-based research platform for the NHERI (Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure) Network, DesignSafe allows researchers to manage, analyze, and understand critical information about natural hazards—from earthquakes and tornados to hurricanes and sinkholes.
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DesignSafe's Reconnaissance Portal, which launched in 2017, provided both the computing capabilities Roueche needed for his analyses and a place to share more than 200 gigabytes of gathered data. The portal also allowed his team to immediately begin quality control and assessments on the data and rapidly generate reports that others going into the field later could use and contribute to.
Typically, it takes years for data gathered by researchers after a storm to be analyzed and reported on, which means rebuilding efforts cannot take advantage of engineers' insights. With a system like DesignSafe, however, there is hope that the "resilience curve" can be accelerated and that recommendations can be disseminated in months.
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In addition to enabling post-storm reconnaissance, being on the front-lines of Hurricane Harvey inspired DesignSafe's developers to create new tools to assist first responders in the future.
Dan Stanzione, TACC's executive director and the principal investigator for DesignSafe, assisted decision-makers at the Texas State Operations Center during Hurricane Harvey.
"While there, a first responder said to me: 'I want to know a list of addresses in Houston that have been flooded above their electrical outlet height. You have a supercomputer, you can do that right?'" Stanzione recalled. "We weren't able to provide that assistance in the moment, but it inspired us to create such a tool."
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