Locally Applicable, Regionally Replicable Decision-Support Tools

Lead Agency

NOAA Pacific Services Center (PSC).

Participating Jurisdictions

American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and Hawai‘i.

Objective

Support the development and dissemination of climate and natural hazard risk management–related decision-support tools.

Description

A number of decision-support tools are currently under consideration for development, including the following:

• Risk Management Measure Assessment Tool (RMMAT), a Web-based tool to help decision makers identify preferred risk management measures by giving them a better understanding of what options are available and how to evaluate the applicability of these options;
• Storm Damage Assessment and Reporting Tool (SDART), a unified, user-friendly geographic information system (GIS)-based tool designed to facilitate collection, mapping, analysis, and reporting of building inventory information for the purpose of pre- and post-storm damage assessment; and
• Slope Movement Assessment and Reporting Tool (SMART), a unified, user-friendly GIS-based tool designed to facilitate the analysis and mapping of areas susceptible to slope movement and that can be used to flag areas where further, more detailed investigations are warranted.

In some instances support will involve actual development of content and other elements of these or other tools yet to be defined. In other instances support will primarily take the form of overseeing the completion of work on these or other tools.

Outcomes

• Better understanding of what risk management options are available.
• Better understanding of the social, cultural, environmental, economic, and other considerations associated with these options.
• Better decisions regarding the identification of a preferred risk management strategy.
• More accurate and rapid identification of areas susceptible to slope movement.
• More accurate knowledge of the attributes of structures and their vulnerability to coastal storms.
• More rapid assessment of what needs to be repaired or rebuilt after a storm has hit.
• Improved ability of coastal communities to reduce the economic, social, and environmental impacts of coastal natural hazards.

Potential Project Partners

American Samoa Department of Commerce’s Coastal Management Program, American Samoa Territorial Emergency Management Coordinating Office, American Samoa Community College, American Samoa Power Authority, CNMI Coastal Resources Management Office, Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency, East-West Center’s Pacific Disaster Center, Guam Coastal Management Program, Hawai‘i Coastal Zone Management Program; Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources, Kamehameha Schools, Martin and Chock, Inc., NOAA Coastal Services Center, NOAA National Weather Service, NOAA Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, University of Hawai‘i Department of Civil Engineering, University of Hawai‘i Social Sciences Research Institute, U.S. Geological Survey, and others.