RAPID:Archiving and Enabling Community Access to Data from Recent US Hurricanes

Utah State University, Logan UT

Investigators

Abstract

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were large, highly impactful, weather events.  In particular, Harvey was a unique storm event that exceeded all previously recorded storms in terms of precipitation. Information that helps the research community understand such events better will enable better forecasting techniques and designs of critical facilities design that can better withstand severe weather events.The objective of this project is to collect, document and archive data from hurricanes Harvey and Irma within HydroShare, a data service provided by the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) that supports the sharing and publication of a broad class of hydrologic data and models. This data will serve as a key resource for understanding how such large and sustained flooding and rainfall events could have occurred, and how critical infrastructures should be designed. Further, HydroShare is used by over 130 institutions, and having the information related to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma centrally available will have allow research related to these events to be more easily conducted, as well as facilitate creative and unanticipated use of this data.