Mapping cross-scale economic impacts of storm surge events: considerations for design and user testing

Abstract

Cartographic display of cross-scale phenomena and user-centered design are considered through a discussion of the development of an interactive web map depicting local-tonational economic impacts of hurricane storm surge events in Galveston Bay, Texas. Map development and design (as informed by stakeholder focus groups) is described, including approaches to presenting complex, cross-scale impacts of surge events across multiple years and scenarios. Particular consideration is given to how designs may communicate complexity without overly taxing users' mental and perceptual resources (measured via NASA task-load index) or outstripping their mapping/domain expertise. The map produced uses linked map views to communicate multiple, cross-scale storm surge impacts. The production process and associated user testing highlighted the importance of matching tool complexity to users' needs and levels of expertise, including through the use of tiered interface design. Optimizing the design of such maps to meet users' needs is essential to fostering public hazard literacy.

3D visualization of hurricane storm surge impact on urban infrastructure

“…As our visualization demonstrates, Galveston has a complex flood hazardscape, with lower vulnerability in elevated areas near the seawall on the east end of the island and higher vulnerability on the bay side and west end. Consistent with earlier visualizations of Galveston flood scenarios with and without the Ike Dike (Retchless et al, 2021), our visualization shows that the Dike is likely to significantly reduce storm surge flooding -and associated property damage -in most areas of the island and for multiple storm surge and sea level rise scenarios. This could be especially beneficial to homes and businesses in low lying areas away from the sea wall that are currently at high risk of flooding during storm surge events without the protection of the Dike.…”

Developing Human-Centered Urban Digital Twins for Community Infrastructure Resilience: A Research Agenda

“…In one such effort, a research team studied how flood models may be combined with economic loss models to create interactive tools exploring scenarios for local to national economic impacts of a hurricane storm surge in Galveston Bay (Yildirim and Demir 2019). Results showed that the complexity and design of tools used to visualize the scenarios should be adaptable to the varying needs, expertise, and abilities of different user groups (Retchless et al 2021).…”

“…Similarly, VR coupled with urban simulation allows planners to interact with environments in an immersive, first-person view before designs are implemented. In the context of community adaptation planning, UDTs also provide important approaches for gaining deeper insights into community resilience through the simulation of multidimensional socioeconomic consequences of climate risk (Francisco, Mohammadi, and Taylor 2020; Ye et al 2021). Since UDTs often facilitate and incorporate these modeling, visualization, and simulation functions, we include these terms in our scoping review to help narrow our search results for UDT literature to articles that would be most likely to contribute to community infrastructure resilience.…”

“…Further, silos within the design, social, and engineering sciences as well as yawning gaps between research and practice have made sustainable and equitable development difficult (Ye et al 2021). Coastal risk communications require decision makers to better identify the potential risk of diverse stakeholders, connect with stakeholders using up-to-date information, and inspire stakeholders to make risk-wise decisions under adverse conditions.…”