Geospatial Mapping of Coastal Communities of
Alabama:Value Created by Collaboration
EDA Grant #: G004824
Problem Statement




Hurricane storm surge
and wash of sand and
debris inland frustrates
clean-up effort
Heavy Equipment
damages fixtures
covered by debris and
sand
$9 billion spent by federal
government in mitigation
efforts since 1998
50% or more of the
damage inflicted on
critical utilities during
the clean-up effort
Current Condition

Each utility company has
print or electronic maps
in different formats

Little coordination during
clean-up effort

No information sharing
system in place to deliver
plans to clean-up
personnel
AU-EDA Project Goals
Problem
There is no regional model of
infrastructure data sharing among
multiple partners in coastal
regions.
Benchmark / Goal
•Identify issues related to data
storage, sharing, and security
Critical community infrastructure
data needs to be collected, stored
and backed up as new buildings,
roads, and utilities are installed.
• Collect & store infrastructure data
from multiple partners in the Alabama
coastal community
•Sign MOAs with cities & utilities
• Upload data to Virtual Alabama
During a disaster, ad-hoc facilities •Identify members of recovery team
and practices often bypass
• Retrieve stored data effectively
physical and access controls used
•Train members of the recovery team
under normal operations.
on effective use of the GIS data
• Mark infrastructure elements right
after a disaster
Scope of Project: Baldwin County
Coastal Area + Industry Clustures
Project Team: Two year project
Chetan S Sankar, Amit
Mitra
David Mixson, Walker Jackson
Steve Henderson, Diane Brown
P.K. Raju
Barry Cumbie
Model for the Project: Co-Creation
of Value by Effective Collaboration
Mapping the Coastal
Communities of Alabama
27 Auburn University Students Collect Infrastructure
Facilities Data in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, &
Dauphin Island
January – April 2010
Training Provided to Students Prior to
Being Deployed at Site
•Student workers were
provided hands on training
from team leaders on how
to use the Topcon-GMS2
units
•Student workers were
provided instruction
manuals on the units to
reference while working in
their groups of two.
•Lastly, student workers
were provided an icons list,
so they could easily identify
infrastructure elements
while working on site.
Data Collection at Gulf Shores During
Week One (Feb. 19-21)

Team leaders: Darrell Rigsby and Satish Kutchi

Student Workers:
(Team 3) Sarah Tway, Mark Stevenson, John Neubauer, Grant Martin and Tim Ledlow
(Team 5) Andy Dyer, David Rose, Michael Porter and John Davenport
Data Points Collected:
605
Walking Miles Covered:
4
Data Collection during Week Two (Feb. 2628) at Gulf Shores

Team leaders: Darrell Rigsby, Satish Kutchi and Kati Jones

Student workers:
(Team1) Kanesha Belyue, Caitlin Duff, Carter Rice and Alex Johnson
(Team 4) Tyler Gibson, Grant Moore, Lauren McManus and Sara Yousey
(Team 6) Milaika Pickard, Drew Turner, Eric Hirstein and Satish Kutchi
Data Points Collected:
1592
Walking Miles Covered:
9.16
Data Collection During Week Three (March
5-7) at Gulf Shores

Team Leaders: Darrell Rigsby and Kati Jones

Student Workers:
(Team1) Kanesha Belyue, Caitlin Duff, Carter Rice and Alex Johnson
(Team 3) Sarah Tway, Mark Stevenson, John Neubauer, Grant Martin and Tim
Ledlow
(Team 6) Milaika Pickard, Drew Turner, Eric Hirstein and Satish Kutchi
Data Points Collected:
1950
Walking Miles Covered:
10.5
Data Collection during Week Four (March
26-28) at Gulf Shores & Orange Beach

Team Leaders: Darrell Rigsby and Kati Jones

Student Workers:
(Team 4) Tyler Gibson, Grant Moore, Grant Martin, Lauren McManus and Sara
Yousey
(Team 5) Andy Dyer, David Rose, Michael Porter and John Davenport
Data Points Collected:
1692
Walking Miles Covered:
9.00
Data Collection During Week Five (April
10-12) at Orange Beach

Team Leaders: Satish Kutchi

Student Workers:
(Team 3) Sarah Tway, Mark Stevenson, John Neubauer, Grant Martin and
Tim Ledlow
(Team 4) Tyler Gibson, Grant Moore, Lauren McManus and Sara Yousey
(Team 6) Milaika Pickard, Drew Turner, Eric Hirstein and Satish Kutchi
Data Points Collected:
1914
Walking Miles Covered:
11.0
Data Collected So far in the Project
Data Points Collected:
7,753
Walking Miles Covered:
43.67
Total Manhours:
450
Example of Collected Data
Future Plans
2 more weeks of data collection during
April by 5 teams
 Data collection by a smaller team during
summer & fall
 Upload data to Virtual Alabama
 Provide data to city & utilities
 Develop training materials
 Train appropriate personnel on use of
GMS-2 units & retrieve data

Benefits: Student Learning
Students get to work with GIS
technologies
 Give back to community
 Learn ArcGIS and other technologies
 Improve communication skills
 Improve team working skills
 Enhance leadership skills

Benefits: Advance Productivity,
Innovation, & Entrepreneurship





40% of reconstruction costs can be eliminated if
geospatial data are available on-line
Time to recover from damage is expected to be halved
due to the availability of these data
Will make economic impact of this project very
attractive
The concept of geospatial mapping of a coastal area is
innovative;
Project team members learn to apply theories learned
in class to solve a practical problem