David K Arctur

University of Texas at Austin | Research Fellow

Subject Areas: GIS, flood & flood risk mapping

 Recent Activity

ABSTRACT:

Quick Start
This is a collection of flood datasets to support hydrologic research for Hurricane Harvey, August-September 2017. The best way to start exploring this collection is by opening the Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map [2]. It has separate sections for the different content categories, and links to the relevant HydroShare resources within this collection.

More Details
This is the root collection resource for management of hydrologic and related data collected during Hurricane Harvey on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf coast. This collection holds numerous composite resources comprising streamflow forecasts, inundation polygons and depth grids, flooding impacts, elevation grids, high water marks, and numerous other related information sources. Texas address points are included to support estimating storm and flood impacts in terms of structures within an affected area.

The data providers for this collection are the Texas Division of Emergency Management, NOAA National Weather Service, NOAA National Hurricane Center, NOAA National Water Center, FEMA, 9-1-1 emergency communications agencies, and many others. Esri and Kisters also provided invaluable tools, data and geoprocessing services to support the initial data production, and these are included or referenced.

User-contributed resources from 2017 US Hurricanes may also be shared with The CUAHSI 2017 Hurricane Data Community group [1] to make them accessible to interested researchers, Anyone may join this group.

An ArcGIS Story Map [2] has been created which provides example data views and interactive access to this collection.

This collection has been produced by work on a US National Science Foundation RAPID Award "Archiving and Enabling Community Access to Data from Recent US Hurricanes" [3].

References
[1] CUAHSI 2017 Hurricane Data Community group [https://www.hydroshare.org/group/41]
[2] Hurricane Harvey 2017 Archive Story Map [https://arcg.is/1rWLzL0]
[3] NSF RAPID Grant [https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1761673]

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ABSTRACT:

This resource links to the Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map (Esri ArcGIS Online web app) [1] that provides a graphical overview and set of interactive maps to download flood depth grids, flood extent polygons, high water marks, stream gage observations, National Water Model streamflow forecasts, and several other datasets compiled before, during and after Hurricane Harvey.

November 2023 updates: Esri has deprecated the previous story map template, so a new story map has been generated. Most of the content is the same as before, with these exceptions:
- The Vulnerabilities and the Harvey Stories pages have been removed, due to nonfunctioning web links to other Harvey resources out of our control.
- Story map links to HydroShare resource pages have been updated to the most current HydroShare resource versions.

References
[1] Hurricane Harvey Story Map [https://arcg.is/1rWLzL0]

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ABSTRACT:

This resource links to the Texas Address and Base Layers Story Map (Esri ArcGIS Online web app) [1] that provides a graphical overview and set of interactive maps to download Texas statewide address points, as well as contextual map layers including roads, rail, bridges, rivers, dams, low water crossings, stream gauges, and others. The addresses were compiled over the period from June 2016 to December 2017 by the Center for Water and the Environment (CWE) at the University of Texas at Austin, with guidance and funding from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM). These addresses are used by TDEM to help anticipate potential impacts of serious weather and flooding events statewide.

For detailed compilation notes, see [2]. Contextual map layers will be found at [3] and [4].

November 2023 update: in 2019, TNRIS took over maintenance of the Texas Address Database, which is now updated annually as part of the StratMap program [5]. Also, TNRIS changed its name this year to the Texas Geographic Information Office (TxGIO). The StratMap and DataHub download sites still use the tnris.org domain but that may change .

References
[1] Texas Address and Base Layers story map [https://arcg.is/19PWu1]
[2] Texas-Harvey Basemap - Addresses and Boundaries [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/3e251d7d70884abd928d7023e050cbdc/]
[3] Texas Basemap - Hydrology Map Data [https://doi.org/10.4211/hs.adb14c9c073e4eee8be82fadb21a0a93/]
[4] Texas Basemap - Transportation Map Data [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/ab3a463be73c4fd988a492b5d1b4c573/]
[5] TNRIS/TxGIO StratMap Address Points data downloads [https://tnris.org/stratmap/address-points/]

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ABSTRACT:

This is the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) [1]. This is often used by the emergency response community to anticipate areas where social support systems are weaker, and residents may be more likely to need help. A map viewer for the national database can be found here [2].

November 2023 updates: at the time of Hurricane Harvey, the latest SVI was based on 2014 census data. The CDC SVI website and feature services have since changed. See the current (updated) links for more details.

Subsets of CDC's 2014 SVI for the Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma hydrologic study areas can be downloaded from the contents list below.

[1] SVI web site [https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/index.html
[2] SVI interactive map [https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/interactive_map.html]

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ABSTRACT:

This resource contains Lidar-DEM collection status shapefiles from the Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS) [http://tnris.org].
November 2023 updates: this year, TNRIS changed its name to Texas Geographic Information Office (TxGIO). The domain name hasn't changed yet, but the data hub is continually evolving. See [1], [2] for current downloadable data.

For purposes of Hurricane Harvey studies, the 1-m DEM for Harris County (2008) has also been uploaded here as a set of 4 zipfiles containing the DEM in tiff files. See [1] for a link to the current elevation status map and downloadable DEMs.
Project name: H-GAC 2008 1m
Datasets: 1m Point Cloud, 1M Hydro-Enforced DEM, 3D Breaklines, 1ft and 5ft Contours
Points per sq meter: 1
Total area: 3678.56 sq miles
Source: Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC)
Acquired by: Merrick, QA/QC: Merrick
Catalog: houston-galveston-area-council-h-gac-2008-lidar

References:
[1] TNRIS/TxGIO StratMap elevation data [https://tnris.org/stratmap/elevation-lidar/]
[2] TNRIS/TxGIO DataHub [https://data.tnris.org/]

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 Contact

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Resources
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Resource Resource
NOAA NHC - Irma Storm Track - Advisories Track
Created: Jan. 5, 2018, 12:40 a.m.
Authors: David Tarboton

ABSTRACT:

NOAA publishes advisory bulletins with named storm conditions and expectations, see [http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2017/IRMA.shtml]. Information from these bulletins was extracted using an R Code in "Generate Hurricane Track.ipynb" to produce the file Irma.csv. This was then converted to a vector shapefile using ArcGIS.

See also "NOAA NHC Irma 2017 Storm Track" page for other related data [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/aa5c9982a4694a19be2fa9299b78e5ca/]

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Collection Collection
Hurricane Harvey 2017 Collection
Created: April 17, 2018, 3:02 a.m.
Authors: David Arctur · Erika Boghici · David Tarboton · David Maidment · Jerad Bales · Ray Idaszak · Martin Seul · Anthony Michael Castronova

ABSTRACT:

Quick Start
This is a collection of flood datasets to support hydrologic research for Hurricane Harvey, August-September 2017. The best way to start exploring this collection is by opening the Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map [2]. It has separate sections for the different content categories, and links to the relevant HydroShare resources within this collection.

More Details
This is the root collection resource for management of hydrologic and related data collected during Hurricane Harvey on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf coast. This collection holds numerous composite resources comprising streamflow forecasts, inundation polygons and depth grids, flooding impacts, elevation grids, high water marks, and numerous other related information sources. Texas address points are included to support estimating storm and flood impacts in terms of structures within an affected area.

The data providers for this collection are the Texas Division of Emergency Management, NOAA National Weather Service, NOAA National Hurricane Center, NOAA National Water Center, FEMA, 9-1-1 emergency communications agencies, and many others. Esri and Kisters also provided invaluable tools, data and geoprocessing services to support the initial data production, and these are included or referenced.

User-contributed resources from 2017 US Hurricanes may also be shared with The CUAHSI 2017 Hurricane Data Community group [1] to make them accessible to interested researchers, Anyone may join this group.

An ArcGIS Story Map [2] has been created which provides example data views and interactive access to this collection.

This collection has been produced by work on a US National Science Foundation RAPID Award "Archiving and Enabling Community Access to Data from Recent US Hurricanes" [3].

References
[1] CUAHSI 2017 Hurricane Data Community group [https://www.hydroshare.org/group/41]
[2] Hurricane Harvey 2017 Archive Story Map [https://arcg.is/1rWLzL0]
[3] NSF RAPID Grant [https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1761673]

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Resource Resource
USGS - Harvey Gaged Streamflow Timeseries
Created: April 17, 2018, 3:18 a.m.
Authors: · David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This resource provides datasets for stream discharge (flow rate) in cubic feet per second, and gage height (stream depth) from 924 active USGS gages in the Hurricane Harvey impact zone across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas (see shapefile for all gages).

These data were obtained from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) [1] using R scripts provided here. When running these R scripts, 745 of the 924 gages had gage height values, and 577 of the 924 had discharge values. For help in using these R scripts, USGS used to provide support tools but the links for those no longer work. I used R Studio on Windows for these retrievals.

Formats provided:
- Shapefile and csv for gage locations, including link to USGS gage details [1]
- Tabular (csv) datasets for timeseries of water discharge (flow rate) in cubic ft/sec, and timeseries of gage height in ft.
- R scripts to download timeseries data from NWIS

References
[1] USGS NWIS - interactive portal for stream gage site info [https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis]

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Collection Collection
Harvey Flood Data Collections
Created: April 17, 2018, 3:08 a.m.
Authors: David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This collection is for datasets of flood depths, flood extents, high water marks, streamflow, damages recorded, aerial oblique photos, and related subjects. This includes both forecast and observed data. These were primarily obtained from national agencies such as NOAA (weather related), USGS (surface water related), FEMA (surface water and damage related), and Civil Air Patrol (aerial photos).

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Resource Resource
ECMWF GloFAS - Harvey+Irma Flood Area Grids
Created: April 17, 2018, 4:19 a.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

These datasets were obtained from ECMWF/GloFAS on November 13, 2017, to include the flood forecast (area grid) for Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in the USA from August 15 - September 15, 2017. These are contained in netCDF files, one per day.

Note that while folders and files may have the words "areagrid_for_Harvey" in the name, all the data here are for the southeast USA, encompassing both Harvey and Irma impact areas.

Dataset variables:
- dis = forecasted discharge (for all forecast step 1+30 as initial value and 30 daily average values, with ensemble members as 1+50 where the first is the so-called control member and the 50 perturbed members)
- ldd = local drainage direction within routing model
- ups = upstream area of each point within routing model
- rl2,rl5,rl20 = forecast exceedance thresholds for 2-, 5- and 20-year return period flows, based on gumbel distribution from ERA-interim land reanalysis driven through the lisflood routing.

Models used (see [2] for further details):
- Hydrology: River discharge is simulated by the Lisflood hydrological model (van der Knijff et al., 2010) for the flow routing in the river network and the groundwater mass balance. The model is set up on global coverage with horizontal grid resolution of 0.1° (about 10 km in mid-latitude regions) and daily time step for input/output data.
- Meteorology: To set up a forecasting and warning system that runs on a daily basis with global coverage, initial conditions and input forcing data must be provided seamlessly to every point within the domain. To this end, two products are used. The first consists of operational ensemble forecasts of near-surface meteorological parameters. The second is a long-term dataset consistent with daily forecasts, used to derive a reference climatology.

Suggestions for usage:
- Selected software: ArcGIS or QGIS
- Select dis for example, then any of the bands (51*31 in total), then set the range manually to 0-1000 or something like that.

Agency:
GloFAS [1]
From its public website: "The Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS), jointly developed by the European Commission and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), is independent of administrative and political boundaries. It couples state-of-the art weather forecasts with a hydrological model and with its continental scale set-up it provides downstream countries with information on upstream river conditions as well as continental and global overviews. GloFAS produces daily flood forecasts in a pre-operational manner since June 2011."

References
[1] GloFAS home page [http://www.globalfloods.eu/]
[2] Data and methods [http://www.globalfloods.eu/user-information/data-and-methods]

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Resource Resource
USGS - Harvey High Water Marks
Created: April 17, 2018, 3:33 a.m.
Authors: · David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

During and after Hurricane Harvey, the US Geological Survey recorded high water marks across southeast Texas, as they do for every major storm. The files in this dataset provide 2123 high water marks for Hurricane Harvey flooding, among 1258 sites. These files were downloaded following the steps below. If you'd like to check the original sources again, or search for HWM for a different storm, you may find these directions helpful.

Finding, Downloading and Filtering USGS High Water Marks (HWM)
1. Visit USGS website: https://water.usgs.gov/floods/history.html, which lets you…
2. Click on Hurricane Harvey: https://www.usgs.gov/harvey, which lets you…
3. Click on green button Get Data: https://stn.wim.usgs.gov/fev/#HarveyAug2017
4. In left margin menu of resulting page, click a second Get Data link. This will open up the remaining options below.
5. Click each data type you want, such as High-Water Mark, Peak Summary, or Sensor Data. It’s only csv or REST (json or xml).

* I downloaded the HWM as csv, opened in Excel, clicked the Sort & Filter tool in Excel toolbar, clicked Filter, then filtered on "Harvey Aug 2017” in the popup list for column E (Event Name). I saved the result to a new spreadsheet which now has 2123 records, plus column labels in row 1.

* To understand the fields or columns of this table, see HWM_Peaks_Sensors_Data_Dictionary_20180329.xslx in the contents below.

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Resource Resource
NOAA NWC - Harvey National Water Model Streamflow Forecasts
Created: April 17, 2018, 5:56 a.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

The National Water Model (NWM) is a water forecasting model operated by the National Water Center (NWC) of the NOAA National Weather Service. The NWM continually forecasts flows on 2.7 million stream reaches covering 3.2 million miles of streams and rivers in the continental United States [1]. It operates as part of the national weather forecasting system, with inputs from NOAA numerical weather prediction models, and from weather and water conditions observed through the US Geological Survey's National Water Information System. Reference materials for the computational framework behind NWM is published by NCAR [9] [10].

The NWC generates NWM streamflow forecasts for the continental US (CONUS) with multiple forecast horizons and time steps. Due to the output file sizes, these are normally not available for download more than a couple days at a time [2]. However, a 40-day rolling window of these forecasts is maintained by HydroShare at RENCI [3], and a complete retrospective (August 2016 to the present) of the NWM Analysis & Assimilation outputs is maintained as well (contact help@cuahsi.org for access).

An archive of all NWM forecasts for the period Aug 18 to Sept 10, 2017 has been compiled at RENCI [4] [5], available as netCDF (.nc) files totaling 8TB. These can be browsed, subsetted, visualized, and downloaded (see [6] [7] [8]). In addition to these output files, we have uploaded to this HydroShare resource the input parameter files needed to re-run the NWM for the Harvey period, or for any time period covered by NWM v1.1 and 1.2 (August 2016 to this publication date in August 2018). These parameter files are also made available at [1].

See README for further details and usage guidance. Please see NOAA contacts listed on [1] for questions about the NWM data contents, structure and formats. Contact help@cuahsi.org if any questions about HydroShare-based tools and data access.

References
[1] Overview of the NWM framework and output files [http://water.noaa.gov/about/nwm]
[2] Free access to all National Water Model output for the most recent two days [ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com/nwm]
[3] NWM outputs for rolling 40-day window, maintained by HydroShare [http://thredds.hydroshare.org/thredds/catalog/nwm/catalog.html]
[4] Archived Harvey NWM outputs via RENCI THREDDS server [http://thredds.hydroshare.org/thredds/catalog/nwm/harvey/catalog.html]
[5] RENCI is an Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
[6] Live map for National Water Model forecasts [http://water.noaa.gov/map]
[7] NWM Forecast Viewer app [https://hs-apps.hydroshare.org/apps/nwm-forecasts]
[8] CUAHSI JupyterHub example scripts for subsetting NWM output files [https://hydroshare.org/resource/3db192783bcb4599bab36d43fc3413db/]
[9] WRF-Hydro Overview [https://ral.ucar.edu/projects/wrf_hydro/overview]
[10] WRF-Hydro User Guide 2015 [https://ral.ucar.edu/sites/default/files/public/images/project/WRF_Hydro_User_Guide_v3.0.pdf]

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Resource Resource
NOAA NHC - Harvey 2017 Storm Track
Created: April 17, 2018, 5:20 a.m.
Authors: · David Arctur · Erika Boghici

ABSTRACT:

The NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC) publishes advisory bulletins with named storm conditions and expectations, see [1]. We have also downloaded shapefiles for forty-three 5-day forecasts (published from August 17 to August 30) of track line, predicted points, ensemble forecasts envelope, and affected shoreline where applicable. NOAA also publishes the best track for major storms [3]. The "best track" is a smoothed version of the advisories track. Web services are also provided by NHC for the advisory points and lines [4] [5].

References
[1] NOAA NHC - Harvey storm advisories [http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2017/HARVEY.shtml]
[2] NOAA NHC - Harvey 5-day forecasts [https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gis/archive_forecast_results.php?id=al09&year=2017&name=Hurricane%20HARVEY]
[3] NOAA NHC - best tracks for 2017 storms [https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/index.php?season=2017&basin=atl]
[4] NOAA NHC - Harvey advisory points web service [https://services.arcgis.com/XSeYKQzfXnEgju9o/ArcGIS/rest/services/The_2017_Atlantic_Hurricane_season_(to_October_16th)/FeatureServer/0]
[5] NOAA NHC - Harvey advisory lines web service [https://services.arcgis.com/XSeYKQzfXnEgju9o/ArcGIS/rest/services/The_2017_Atlantic_Hurricane_season_(to_October_16th)/FeatureServer/5]

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Collection Collection
Harvey Basemap Data Collections
Created: April 17, 2018, 6:05 a.m.
Authors: David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This collection contains map data often used as base layers for hydrologic and geographic analysis, organized by these categories:
- Addresses and Boundaries (Texas address points, counties, Councils of Government boundaries, Texas Dept of Public Safety districts and regions)
- Hydrology (streams, gages, dams, catchments, watersheds)
- Transportation (Texas roads, railways, bridges, low water crossings)

The Addresses, Transportation and Dams datasets are for Texas only, but the remaining Hydrology data covers an area of 39 HUC6 basins around the Harvey zone across southeast Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

These data layers generally date to 2015-2016, so could be considered reasonably representative of the base layers at the time of Hurricane Harvey.

The Texas Address and Base Layers Story Map referenced here [1] is an interactive web app supported by Esri ArcGIS Online, that provides visualization and access to specific data layers for Texas only.

One other base layer is the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This is used by the emergency response community to anticipate areas where social support systems are weaker, and residents may be more likely to need help.

References
[1] Texas Address and Base Layers Story Map [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/6d5c7dbe0762413fbe6d7a39e4ba1986/]

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Resource Resource
Texas-Harvey Basemap - Addresses and Boundaries
Created: April 17, 2018, 8:18 a.m.
Authors: David Arctur · David Maidment

ABSTRACT:

This site provides access to download an ArcGIS geodatabase or shapefiles for the 2017 Texas Address Database, compiled by the Center for Water and the Environment (CWE) at the University of Texas at Austin, with guidance and funding from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM). These addresses are used by TDEM to help anticipate potential impacts of serious weather and flooding events statewide. This is part of the Texas Water Model (TWM), a project to adapt the NOAA National Water Model [1] for use in Texas public safety. This database was compiled over the period from June 2016 to December 2017. A number of gaps remain (towns and cities missing address points), see Address Database Gaps spreadsheet below [4]. Additional datasets include administrative boundaries for Texas counties (including Federal and State disaster-declarations), Councils of Government, and Texas Dept of Public Safety Regions. An Esri ArcGIS Story Map [5] web app provides an interactive map-based portal to explore and access these data layers for download.

The address points in this database include their "height above nearest drainage" (HAND) as attributes in meters and feet. HAND is an elevation model developed through processing by the TauDEM method [2], built on USGS National Elevation Data (NED) with 10m horizontal resolution. The HAND elevation data and 10m NED for the continental United States are available for download from the Texas Advanced Computational Center (TACC) [3].

The complete statewide dataset contains about 9.28 million address points representing a population of about 28 million. The total file size is about 5GB in shapefile format. For better download performance, the shapefile version of this data is divided into 5 regions, based on groupings of major watersheds identified by their hydrologic unit codes (HUC). These are zipped by region, with no zipfile greater than 120mb:
- North Tx: HUC1108-1114 (0.52 million address points)
- DFW-East Tx: HUC1201-1203 (3.06 million address points)
- Houston-SE Tx: HUC1204 (1.84 million address points)
- Central Tx: HUC1205-1210 (2.96 million address points)
- Rio Grande-SW Tx: HUC2111-1309 (2.96 million address points)

Additional state and county boundaries are included (Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas), as well as disaster-declaration status, for use with the Hurricane Harvey 2017 Data Archive at HydroShare [7].

Compilation notes: The Texas Commission for State Emergency Communications (CSEC) provided the first 3 million address points received, in a single batch representing 213 of Texas' 254 counties. The remaining 41 counties were primarily urban areas comprising about 6.28 million addresses (totaling about 9.28 million addresses statewide). We reached the GIS data providers for these areas (see Contributors list below) through these emergency communications networks: Texas 9-1-1 Alliance, the Texas Emergency GIS Response Team (EGRT), and the Texas GIS 9-1-1 User Group. The address data was typically organized in groupings of counties called Councils of Governments (COG) or Regional Planning Commissions (RPC) or Development Councils (DC). Every county in Texas belongs to a COG, RPC or DC. We reconciled all counties' addresses to a common, very simple schema, and merged into a single geodatabase.

November 2023 updates: In 2019, TNRIS took over maintenance of the Texas Address Database, which is now a StratMap program updated annually [6]. In 2023, TNRIS also changed its name to the Texas Geographic Information Office (TxGIO). The datasets available for download below are not being updated, but are current as of the time of Hurricane Harvey.

References:
[1] NOAA National Water Model [https://water.noaa.gov/map]
[2] TauDEM Downloads [https://hydrology.usu.edu/taudem/taudem5/downloads.html]
[3] NFIE Continental Flood Inundation Mapping - Data Repository [https://web.corral.tacc.utexas.edu/nfiedata/]
[4] Address Database Gaps, Dec 2017 (download spreadsheet below)
[5] Texas Address and Base Layers Story Map [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/6d5c7dbe0762413fbe6d7a39e4ba1986/]
[6] TNRIS/TxGIO StratMap Address Points data downloads [https://tnris.org/stratmap/address-points/]
[7] Hurricane Harvey 2017 Data Archive Story Map [https://arcg.is/1rWLzL0]

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Resource Resource
Texas Basemap - Hydrology Map Data
Created: April 17, 2018, 9:11 a.m.
Authors: David Arctur · David Maidment

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains Texas statewide hydrologic map data for about 100,000 NHD (National Hydrography Dataset) stream reaches and associated catchments & subwatersheds [1], covering 190,000 stream miles in Texas. Additional map layers include dams, FEMA floodplains and warning zones [2], stream gages [3], and National Weather Service River Forecast Points [4].

The USGS stream gages and NWS AHPS forecast points both have a URL field, which takes you to the authoritative webpage for each selected gage or forecast point.

References
[1] NHDPlus Version 2 [http://www.horizon-systems.com/NHDPlus/V2NationalData.php]
[2] Esri Living Atlas [https://livingatlas.arcgis.com]
[3] USGS NWIS [https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis]
[4] NOAA AHPS [https://water.weather.gov/ahps/forecasts.php]

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Resource Resource
Texas Basemap - Transportation Map Data
Created: April 17, 2018, 9:50 a.m.
Authors: ·

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains statewide networks of roadways, railroads, bridges, and low-water crossings, for Texas only.

Roadways detail: The Transportation Planning and Programming (TPP) Division of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) maintains a spatial dataset of roadway polylines for planning and asset inventory purposes, as well as for visualization and general mapping. M values are stored in the lines as DFOs (Distance From Origin), and provide the framework for managing roadway assets using linear referencing. This dataset covers the state of Texas and includes on-systems routes (those that TxDOT maintains), such as interstate highways, U.S. highways, state highways, and farm and ranch roads, as well as off-system routes, such as county roads and local streets. Date valid as of: 12/31/2014. Publish Date: 05/01/2015. Update Frequency: Quarterly.

Bridges detail: As with the roadways, both on-system and off-system bridges are maintained in separate datasets (54,844 total bridges, 36,007 on-system and 18,837 off-system). Bridges have numerous useful attributes, see coding guide [1] for documentation. One such attribute identifies structures that cross water: the second digit of Item 42 “Type of Service”. If the second digit is between 5 and 9 (inclusive) then the structure is over water. The bridges datasets are valid as of December 2016.

The roadways and bridges datasets contained here were obtained directly from TxDOT through personal correspondence. An additional transportation data resource is the Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS) [3]. The railroads and low-water crossings were obtained through TNRIS.

November 2023 updates: in the years since this data archive was first published, TxDOT has developed an open data portal for downloading their roadway inventory and other datasets. Also, in 2023 TNRIS was renamed as the Texas Geographic Information Office (TxGIO). Their datahub [3] is continually evolving, but still has the tnris.org domain for now. We are not updating any of the basemap data in the contents list below, which was current at the time of Hurricane Harvey.

References
[1] TxDOT Bridges Coding Guide (download below)
[2] TxDOT Open Data Portal [https://gis-txdot.opendata.arcgis.com/]
[3] TNRIS/TxGIO data downloads [https://data.tnris.org/]

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Resource Resource

ABSTRACT:

This is a step-by-step demonstration of how to browse NASA data services for land surface maps and time series data using the Data Rods Explorer (DRE) App [1]; followed by a step by step demonstration of how to compare a single model variable for a single location over multiple years. See the DRE User Guide [2] for complete description of this application.

References
[1] Data Rods Explorer App [https://apps.hydroshare.org/apps/data-rods-explorer/]
[2] DRE User Guide [https://github.com/gespinoza/datarodsexplorer/blob/master/docs/DREUserGuide.md]

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Resource Resource
Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) for CONUS
Created: April 21, 2018, 2:36 a.m.
Authors: Yan Liu

ABSTRACT:

Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) is an approach for estimating the vertical height of any point on the landscape from the nearest stream surface or bed. This dataset is based on the U.S. Geological Survey's National Elevation Dataset (NED) with 10-meter horizontal resolution, comprising raster data for the 331 HUC-6 units in conterminous U.S. (CONUS), excluding the five units of the great lakes. This was developed at the UIUC CyberGIS supercomputing facility, and is now archived at the UT Austin TACC (Texas Advanced Computing Center) for download.

To interactively select HAND data by HUC6 basin in either the Harvey or Irma hydrologic study area, use the Harvey Archive Story Map [http://arcg.is/001jje] or the Irma Archive Story Map [http://arcg.is/PSOKH] and click on the HAND tab. To directly browse this data for anywhere in CONUS, visit [https://web.corral.tacc.utexas.edu/nfiedata/].

For an explanation of the contents of the nfiedata folder at TACC, see README file for this resource.

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Resource Resource
FEMA - Harvey Flood Depths Grid
Created: April 21, 2018, 2:49 a.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

This resource describes a dataset of gridded depth at horizontal resolution of 3 meters, published November 15, 2017, downloaded from FEMA [1] and hosted in this archive at the University of Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) [2].. The raster dataset is contained within an Esri ArcGIS geodatabase. This product utilized Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) interpolation, four quality assurance measures (identifying dips, spikes, duplication, and inaccurate/unrealistic measurements). High Water Marks were obtained from the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD), US Geological Survey (USGS), and other inspection data. Elevation data comprised a mosaic of 3 meter resampled elevations from 1M & 3M LiDAR, and IFSAR data. One section of the IfSAR data was found to be erroneous, and replaced with a blended 10 meter section.
[This description was in correspondence January 22, 2018, from Mark English, GeoSpatial Risk Analyst, FEMA Region VIII, Mitigation Division.]

A preliminary version of these depths dated September 10, 2017 can be viewed in a FEMA web map [3]. This web map shows a forecasted depth grid, based on National Weather Service (NWS) Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS) forecasted water levels.

See FEMA's Natural Hazard Risk Assessment Program (NHRAP) ftp site [4] for additional HWM-based depth grids and inundation polygons:
- Harris County AOIs and Inundation Boundaries [5]
- Harris County Depth Grids [6]
- Aransas, Nueces, and San Patricio Coastal Depth Grids and Boundaries [7]
FEMA notes on these Modeled Preliminary Observations:
o Based on observed Water Levels at stream gauges interpolated along rivers, downsampled to 5m resolution DEM
o Depth grids updated with new observed peak crest as they become available
o Will include High Water Mark information as it becomes available
o Extents validated with remote sensing
o Use for determining damage levels on specific structures

See also FEMA's journal of mitigation planning and actions related to Harvey [8].

References and related links:
[1] FEMA_Depths_3m_v3.zip (39 gb ftp download) [https://data.femadata.com/Region8/Mitigation/Data_Share/]
[2] TACC 39gb wget or ftp download [https://web.corral.tacc.utexas.edu/nfiedata/Harvey/flood_data/FEMA_Harvey_Depths_3m.gdb.zip]
[3] FEMA map viewer for Hurricane Harvey resources (flood depths is bottom selection in layers list) [https://fema.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=50f21538c7bf4e08b9faab430bc237c9]
[4] FEMA NHRAP ftp [https://data.femadata.com/FIMA/NHRAP/Harvey/]
[5] [https://data.femadata.com/FIMA/NHRAP/Harvey/Harris_AOIandBoundaries.zip]
[6] [https://data.femadata.com/FIMA/NHRAP/Harvey/Harris_Mosaic_dgft.zip]
[7] [https://data.femadata.com/FIMA/NHRAP/Harvey/Rockport_DG_unclipped.zip]
[8] Hurricane Harvey Mitigation Portfolio - FEMA map journal [https://fema.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=70204cf2762d45409553fd9642700b7f]

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Resource Resource

ABSTRACT:

The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was among the busiest on record, producing 18 tropical depressions, 18 tropical storms, 10 hurricanes that occurred in succession, and 23 separate landfalls by Atlantic named storms. Six of the ten hurricanes further  strengthened into major hurricanes. Three of these were Harvey (TX-LA-MS), Irma (FL-GA-NC), and Maria (Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands). These three were so devastating, and so close to each other in time, that the National Science Foundation (NSF) urged the research community to apply for NSF RAPID grants to study these hurricanes and their impacts, to better understand how these occurred. A team led by David Tarboton, David Maidment, Jerad Bales, and Ray Idaszak received funds [1] to build a storm and flood data archive for Harvey and Irma, to be housed on HydroShare, and managed by CUAHSI. The project period is from October 2017 to September 2018. This presentation summarizes work to date (April 2018) on the Harvey part of the collection.

The downloadable datasets are accessed via HydroShare. Some large datasets are hosted on RENCI iRODS and the Univ of Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) facilities.
- Use the Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map [2] for contextual access to the data, via links in the side panel on each tab. 
- For file browser access to the archive, visit the Hurricanes data collection on HydroShare [3].
- Visit the CUAHSI project page [4] to learn more about the project, and for access to Irma and Maria data.

[1] NSF RAPID Grant [https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1761673]
[2] Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map [http://arcg.is/001jje]
[3 Hurricane collection root on HydroShare [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/2836494ee75e43a9bfb647b37260e461/]
[4] CUAHSI project landing page [https://www.cuahsi.org/projects/hurricanes-2017-data-archive]

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Resource Resource
Harvey Basemap - Hydrology Map Data
Created: May 25, 2018, 4:04 a.m.
Authors: · · · David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains medium-resolution (1:100k) National Hydrography Dataset (NHDPlus) [1] map data for a region of 39 Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) 6-digit (HUC6) basins around the Hurricane Harvey impact zone across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. This includes 5978 subwatersheds, 190,192 catchments, and 192,267 flowlines.

USGS active stream gages (924) were downloaded from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) [2] and augmented with each gage's HUC2, HUC4, HUC6, HUC8, HUC10 & HUC12 basin identifiers, and COMID of the NHD stream reach for the containing catchment. This allows the user to easily aggregate gages by various watershed boundaries.

NOAA Advanced Hydrologic Prediction System (AHPS) [3] has 362 river forecast points in the Harvey study area. Many of these are co-located with USGS NWIS gages to leverage authoritative observation data.

A shapefile of Texas dams (7290) was directly received from the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) [4]. They suggest if you have any questions about data, to make an Open Records Request [5].

References
[1] NHDPlus Version 2 [http://www.horizon-systems.com/NHDPlus/V2NationalData.php]
[2] USGS NWIS [https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis]
[3] NOAA AHPS [https://water.weather.gov/ahps/forecasts.php]
[4] TCEQ Data and Records [https://www.tceq.texas.gov/agency/data]
[5] TCEQ Open Records Request [https://www.tceq.texas.gov/agency/data/records-services/reqinfo.html]

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Resource Resource
Texas Basemap - Lidar DEM
Created: May 24, 2018, 8:42 p.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains Lidar-DEM collection status shapefiles from the Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS) [http://tnris.org].
November 2023 updates: this year, TNRIS changed its name to Texas Geographic Information Office (TxGIO). The domain name hasn't changed yet, but the data hub is continually evolving. See [1], [2] for current downloadable data.

For purposes of Hurricane Harvey studies, the 1-m DEM for Harris County (2008) has also been uploaded here as a set of 4 zipfiles containing the DEM in tiff files. See [1] for a link to the current elevation status map and downloadable DEMs.
Project name: H-GAC 2008 1m
Datasets: 1m Point Cloud, 1M Hydro-Enforced DEM, 3D Breaklines, 1ft and 5ft Contours
Points per sq meter: 1
Total area: 3678.56 sq miles
Source: Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC)
Acquired by: Merrick, QA/QC: Merrick
Catalog: houston-galveston-area-council-h-gac-2008-lidar

References:
[1] TNRIS/TxGIO StratMap elevation data [https://tnris.org/stratmap/elevation-lidar/]
[2] TNRIS/TxGIO DataHub [https://data.tnris.org/]

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Resource Resource
FEMA - Harvey Damage Assessments and Claims
Created: May 27, 2018, 8:57 p.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains shapefiles for FEMA Damage Assessments, Auto Claims, and Property Claims, publicly available here [1].
Damage assessments are organized in daily map layers. These appear to be cumulative, but some days' records do not include all the previous days' records.
- Aug 27, 2017: Coastal damage assessments (26,027 records)
- Aug 28: Damage assessments (78,218)
- Aug 29: Damage assessments (115,412)
- Aug 30: Damage assessments (137,754)
- Aug 31: Damage assessments (161,366)
- Sep 02: Damage assessments (156,099)
A document is provided that explains the damage assessment methodology.

Auto and Property Claims are each in a single shapefile, containing all records from Aug 25-Sep 08:
- Auto claims, Aug 25-Sep 08 (203, 312 records)
- Property claims, Aug 25-Sep 08 (226,167)
These identify location, date and type of loss. These are all claims submitted during this period, which may include damages not caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Other damage assessments and inundation depth grids are available at the FEMA Natural Hazard Risk Assessment Program (NHRAP) ftp site [2]. These include:
- Windfield contours [3]
- PDC Hazus Wind Adv26 (Hurrevac) [4]

References
[1] FEMA Damage Assessments ftp [https://data.femadata.com/NationalDisasters/HurricaneHarvey/Data/DamageAssessments/]
[2] FEMA Natural Hazard Risk Assessment Program (NHRAP) ftp [https://data.femadata.com/FIMA/NHRAP/Harvey/]
[3] [https://data.femadata.com/FIMA/NHRAP/Harvey/Harvey_WindSpeedContours.zip]
[4] [https://data.femadata.com/FIMA/NHRAP/Harvey/PDC_HAZUS_Damage_Loss_Assessment_ADV26_26AUG17_2100UTC.PDF]

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Collection Collection
Texas Addresses Basemap Collection
Created: May 31, 2018, 3:39 p.m.
Authors: David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This collection contains Texas statewide map data often used as base layers for hydrologic and geographic analysis, organized by these categories:
- Addresses and Boundaries (Texas address points, counties, Councils of Government boundaries, Texas Dept of Public Safety districts and regions)
- Hydrology (streams, gages, dams, catchments, watersheds)
- Transportation (Texas roads, railways, bridges, low water crossings)

These data layers generally date to 2015-2016.

The Texas Address and Base Layers Story Map referenced here [1] is an interactive web app supported by Esri ArcGIS Online, that provides visualization and access to specific data layers for Texas only.

References
[1] Texas Address and Base Layers Story Map [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/6d5c7dbe0762413fbe6d7a39e4ba1986/]

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Resource Resource
Civil Air Patrol - Harvey Oblique Aerial Photos
Created: June 11, 2018, 5:49 p.m.
Authors: ·

ABSTRACT:

The Civil Air Patrol is routinely tasked by FEMA and local public safety officials with taking aerial photographs. This collection comprises nearly 30,000 photos taken over the Hurricane Harvey study area, between August 19, 2017 and June 2, 2018. The majority of this collection were taken over southeast Texas from August 10 to September 2, 2017. These were originally uploaded to the web using the GeoPlatform.gov imageUploader capability, and hosted as a web map layer [1]. For this Harvey collection, I exported the dataset of photo location points to a local computer, subset it to the Harvey event, and created a shapefile, which is downloadable below. The photos and thumbnails were not included in this archive, but are attribute-linked to the FEMA-Civil Air Patrol image library on Amazon cloud [2].

The primary resource for these photos is the University of Texas at Austin Center for Space Research (UT CSR), hosted at the Texas Advanced Computational Center (TACC) [3]. These photos are organized by collection date, and each date folder has photo metadata in Javascript (js) and json format files. UT CSR has published a separate web app for browsing these photos [4], as well as several other flood imagery sources.

Note: The cameras used by the Civil Air Patrol do not have an electronic compass with their GPS to record the viewing direction. The easiest way to determine the general angle is to look at consecutive frame counterpoints to establish the flightpath direction at nadir and adjust for the photographer's position behind the pilot looking out the window hatch on the port (left) side of the aircraft. The altitude above ground level is typically between 1000-1500 feet, so it's easy to locate features in reference orthoimages.

Another source of aerial imagery is from the NOAA National Geodetic Survey (NGS) [5]. This imagery was acquired by the NOAA Remote Sensing Division to support NOAA homeland security and emergency response requirements.

References
[1] US federal GeoPlatform.gov Image Uploader map service (ArcGIS Server) [https://imageryuploader.geoplatform.gov/arcgis/rest/services/ImageEvents/MapServer]
[2] FEMA-Civil Air Patrol image library on Amazon cloud [https://fema-cap-imagery.s3.amazonaws.com]
[3] UT CSR primary archive for Harvey photos on TACC [https://web.corral.tacc.utexas.edu/CSR/Public/17harvey/TxCAP/]
[4] UT CSR web app for browsing CAP photos [http://magic.csr.utexas.edu/hurricaneharvey/public/]
[5] NOAA NGS Hurricane Harvey Imagery [https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/harvey/index.html#7/28.400/-96.690]

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Resource Resource
CDC Social Vulnerability Index 2014
Created: June 11, 2018, 7:34 p.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

This is the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) [1]. This is often used by the emergency response community to anticipate areas where social support systems are weaker, and residents may be more likely to need help. A map viewer for the national database can be found here [2].

November 2023 updates: at the time of Hurricane Harvey, the latest SVI was based on 2014 census data. The CDC SVI website and feature services have since changed. See the current (updated) links for more details.

Subsets of CDC's 2014 SVI for the Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma hydrologic study areas can be downloaded from the contents list below.

[1] SVI web site [https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/index.html
[2] SVI interactive map [https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/interactive_map.html]]

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Collection Collection
Hurricane Irma 2017 Collection
Created: July 22, 2018, 8:21 p.m.
Authors: David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

Quick Start
This is a collection of flood datasets to support hydrologic research for Hurricane Irma in Florida-Georgia, August-September 2017. The best way to start exploring this collection is by opening the Hurricane Irma 2017 Story Map [http://arcg.is/PSOKH]. It has separate tabs for the different content categories, and links to the relevant HydroShare resources within this collection.
For more information on this hurricane archive project, as well as links to Hurricanes Harvey and Maria data archives, see the CUAHSI public page on the Hurricane 2017 Archives. [1]

More Details
This is the root collection resource for management of hydrologic and related data collected during Hurricane Irma, primarily in Florida, Georgia, and neighboring states within the storm's wind swath. This collection holds numerous composite resources comprising streamflow forecasts, inundation polygons and depth grids, flooding impacts, elevation grids, high water marks, and numerous other related information sources. Building outlines (polygons) for the affected states are also provided, to help understand storm impacts.

The data providers for this collection are the NOAA National Weather Service, NOAA National Hurricane Center, NOAA National Water Center, FEMA, 9-1-1 emergency communications agencies, and many others.

User-contributed resources from 2017 US Hurricanes may also be shared with The CUAHSI 2017 Hurricane Data Community group [2] to make them accessible to interested researchers, Anyone may join this group.

This collection has been produced by work on a US National Science Foundation RAPID Award "Archiving and Enabling Community Access to Data from Recent US Hurricanes" [4].

References
[1] CUAHSI Projects > Hurricane 2017 Archives [https://www.cuahsi.org/projects/hurricanes-2017-data-archive ]
[2] CUAHSI 2017 Hurricane Data Community group [https://www.hydroshare.org/group/41]
[3] Hurricane Irma 2017 Archive Story Map [http://arcg.is/PSOKH]
[4] NSF RAPID Grant [https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1761673]

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Collection Collection
Irma Flood Data Collections
Created: July 22, 2018, 8:34 p.m.
Authors: David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This collection is for datasets of flood depths, flood extents, high water marks, streamflow, damages recorded, aerial oblique photos, and related subjects. This includes both forecast and observed data. These were primarily obtained from national agencies such as NOAA (weather related), USGS (surface water related), FEMA (surface water and damage related), the Civil Air Patrol (aerial photos), and ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting, for flood area grids).

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Resource Resource
NOAA NHC - Irma Storm Track - Best Track + Advisories
Created: July 23, 2018, 5:37 p.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

The NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC) publishes advisory bulletins with named storm conditions and expectations, see [1]. We have also downloaded shapefiles for eighty-four 5-day forecasts (published from August 30 to September 11) of track line, predicted points, ensemble forecasts envelope, and affected shoreline where applicable [2]. NOAA also publishes the best track for major storms [3]. The "best track" is a smoothed version of the advisories track. Web services are also provided by NHC for the advisory points and lines [4] [5]. Another user has constructed the Irma track (shapefile) from the NHC advisory bulletins [6].

FEMA also posts windfield data, including peak wind gust and contours [7].
See FEMA disaster webpage [8] for map and list of counties receiving disaster declarations (map pdf available for download from this page)

References
[1] NOAA NHC - Irma storm advisories [http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2017/IRMA.shtml]
[2] NOAA NHC - Irma 5-day forecasts [https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gis/archive_forecast_results.php?id=al11&year=2017&name=Hurricane%20IRMA]
[3] NOAA NHC - best tracks for 2017 storms [https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/index.php?season=2017&basin=atl]
[4] NOAA NHC - Irma advisory points web service [https://services.arcgis.com/XSeYKQzfXnEgju9o/ArcGIS/rest/services/The_2017_Atlantic_Hurricane_season_(to_October_16th)/FeatureServer/1]
[5] NOAA NHC - Irma advisory lines web service [https://services.arcgis.com/XSeYKQzfXnEgju9o/ArcGIS/rest/services/The_2017_Atlantic_Hurricane_season_(to_October_16th)/FeatureServer/6]
[6] Irma Advisories Track, compiled by David Tarboton [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/546fa3feeaf242fc8aabf9fe05ab454c/]
[7] FEMA public download site for Hurricane Irma 2017 [https://data.femadata.com/NationalDisasters/HurricaneIrma/]
[8] FEMA Disaster Declarations and related links [https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4337]

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Resource Resource
USGS - Irma High Water Marks
Created: July 24, 2018, 2:50 p.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

During and after Hurricane Irma, the US Geological Survey recorded high water marks across the affected area, as they do for every major storm [https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/hurricane-irma]. The files in this dataset provide 506 high water marks for Hurricane Irma flooding, and 202 peak sites. These files were downloaded following the steps below. If you'd like to check the original sources again, or search for HWM for a different storm, you may find these directions helpful.

The High Water Marks can also be visualized directly from the USGS Flood Event Viewer for Irma [https://stn.wim.usgs.gov/fev/#IrmaSeptember2017]

Finding, Downloading and Filtering USGS High Water Marks (HWM)
1. Visit USGS website: https://water.usgs.gov/floods/history.html, which lets you…
2. Click on Hurricane Irma: https://www.usgs.gov/irma, which lets you…
3. Click on green button Get Data: https://stn.wim.usgs.gov/fev/#IrmaSeptember2017
4. In left margin menu of resulting page, click a second Get Data link. This will open up the remaining options below.
5. Click each data type you want, such as High-Water Mark, Peak Summary, or Sensor Data. It’s only csv or REST (json or xml).

* To understand the fields or columns of this table, see HWM_Peaks_Sensors_Data_Dictionary_20180329.xslx in the contents below.

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Resource Resource
NOAA NWC - Irma National Water Model Streamflow Forecasts
Created: July 25, 2018, 4:22 p.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

The National Water Model (NWM) is a water forecasting model operated by the NOAA National Weather Service that continually forecasts flows on 2.7 million stream reaches covering 3.2 million miles of streams and rivers in the continental United States [1]. It operates as part of the national weather forecasting system, with inputs from NOAA numerical weather prediction models, and from weather and water conditions observed through the US Geological Survey's National Water Information System. Reference materials for the computational framework behind NWM is published by NCAR [9] [10].

The NWC generates NWM streamflow forecasts for the continental US (CONUS) with multiple forecast horizons and time steps. Due to the output file sizes, these are normally not available for download more than a couple days at a time [2]. A 40-day rolling window of these forecasts is maintained by HydroShare at RENCI [3], and a complete retrospective (August 2016 to the present) of the NWM Analysis & Assimilation outputs is maintained as well (contact help@cuahsi.org for access).

An archive of all NWM forecasts for the period Aug 29 to Sept 17, 2017 has been compiled at RENCI [4] [5], available as netCDF (.nc) files totaling 6.8 TB. These can be browsed, subsetted, visualized, and downloaded (see [6] [7] [8]). In addition to these output files, we have uploaded to this HydroShare resource the input parameter files needed to re-run the NWM for the Irma period, or for any time period covered by NWM v1.1 and 1.2 (August 2016 to this publication date in August 2018). These parameter files are also made available at [1].

See README for further details and usage guidance. Please see NOAA contacts listed on [1] for questions about the NWM data contents, structure and formats. Contact help@cuahsi.org if any questions about HydroShare-based tools and data access.

References
[1] Overview of the NWM framework and output files [http://water.noaa.gov/about/nwm]
[2] Free access to all National Water Model output for the most recent two days [ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com/nwm]
[3] NWM outputs for rolling 40-day window, maintained by HydroShare [http://thredds.hydroshare.org/thredds/catalog/nwm/catalog.html]
[4] Archived Irma NWM outputs via RENCI THREDDS server [http://thredds.hydroshare.org/thredds/catalog/nwm/irma/catalog.html]
[5] RENCI is an Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
[6] Live map for National Water Model forecasts [http://water.noaa.gov/map]
[7] NWM Forecast Viewer app [https://hs-apps.hydroshare.org/apps/nwm-forecasts]
[8] CUAHSI JupyterHub example scripts for subsetting NWM output files [https://hydroshare.org/resource/3db192783bcb4599bab36d43fc3413db/]
[9] WRF-Hydro Overview [https://ral.ucar.edu/projects/wrf_hydro/overview]
[10] WRF-Hydro User Guide 2013 [https://ral.ucar.edu/sites/default/files/public/images/project/WRF_Hydro_User_Guide_v3.0.pdf]

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Resource Resource
Irma Basemap - Florida Transportation Data
Created: Aug. 10, 2018, 4:26 a.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains statewide networks of roadways, bridges, and railway crossings, for Florida only. These datasets were obtained from Florida Dept of Transportation (FDOT) in August 2018 via their website [1]. The FDOT GIS data is continually being updated, so if you wish to find the most complete and current data, please visit that site.

Contained in the zipfile:
- Roadways (28,992 instances) including the following:
- Interstate Highways (81)
- US Highways (643)
- Toll Roads (90)
- State Highways(1,917)
- Active on the State Highway System (1,450)
- Active off the State Highway System (9,452)
- Florida Roadways (15,359)
- Bridges (9,527)
- Railway Crossings (1,937)
- Numerous other GIS feature layers as well.
All feature layers in the FDOT geodatabase also have ArcMap (.lyr) files for efficient loading and symbolizing.

References:
[1] FDOT GIS data [http://www.fdot.gov/statistics/gis/]

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Resource Resource
FEMA - Irma Flood Data
Created: Aug. 29, 2018, 12:50 a.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

This resource groups data downloaded from FEMA public FTP site for Hurricane Irma [1] for depth grids, flood extents, windfield, and damage assessments.
See FEMA's Natural Hazard Risk Assessment Program (NHRAP) ftp site [2] for additional HWM-based depth grids, inundation polygons, and windfield.

References and related links:
[1] FEMA public download site for Hurricane Irma 2017 [https://data.femadata.com/NationalDisasters/HurricaneIrma/]
[2] FEMA NHRAP ftp [https://data.femadata.com/FIMA/NHRAP/Irma/]

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Resource Resource
Civil Air Patrol - Irma Oblique Aerial Photos
Created: Sept. 23, 2018, 6:05 a.m.
Authors: ·

ABSTRACT:

The Civil Air Patrol is routinely tasked by FEMA and local public safety officials with taking aerial photographs. This collection comprises about 38,000 photos taken over Florida and Georgia during September 8-20, 2017. These were originally uploaded to the web using the GeoPlatform.gov imageUploader capability, and hosted as a web map layer [1]. For this Irma collection, I exported the dataset of photo location points to a local computer, subset it to the Irma event, and created a shapefile, which is downloadable below. The photos and thumbnails were not included in this archive, but are attribute-linked to the FEMA-Civil Air Patrol image library on Amazon cloud [2].

Note: The cameras used by the Civil Air Patrol generally do not have an electronic compass with their GPS to record the viewing direction. The easiest way to determine the general angle is to look at consecutive frame counterpoints to establish the flightpath direction at nadir and adjust for the photographer's position behind the pilot looking out the window hatch on the port (left) side of the aircraft. The altitude above ground level is typically between 1000-1500 feet, so it's easy to locate features in reference orthoimages.

References
[1] US federal GeoPlatform.gov Image Uploader map service (ArcGIS Server) [https://imageryuploader.geoplatform.gov/arcgis/rest/services/ImageEvents/MapServer]
[2] FEMA-Civil Air Patrol image library on Amazon cloud [https://fema-cap-imagery.s3.amazonaws.com]

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Resource Resource
Irma Basemap - ORNL Building Outlines
Created: Sept. 23, 2018, 6:34 a.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

At the request of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a team at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a method for capturing building outlines over a large area. For Hurricane Irma, ORNL assembled this collection [1] of building footprints for Florida (6.5 million), Georgia (3.5 million), Alabama (2.4 million), and the South Carolina coastal area (374k). This was intended as an overlay with predicted or observed flooding extent, to estimate the number of buildings that might be damaged. While not completely accurate, these building outlines are useful for estimating aggregate totals across large areas of interest.

References
[1] FEMA public FTP download site [https://data.femadata.com/NationalDisasters/HurricaneIrma/Data/Buildings/Outlines/OakRidgeNationalLaboratory/]

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Resource Resource
Irma Basemap - Boundaries and Hydrology Data
Created: Sept. 24, 2018, 10:12 p.m.
Authors: ·

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains medium-resolution (1:100k) National Hydrography Dataset (NHDPlus) [1] map data for a region of 23 Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) 6-digit (HUC6) basins around the Hurricane Irma impact zone across Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. This includes 5,236 subwatersheds, 217,308 catchments, and 220,418 flowlines.

State and county boundaries were obtained from the Esri Living Atlas [2].

USGS active stream gages can be downloaded from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) [3], or visualized at the USGS WaterWatch site [4].
NOAA Advanced Hydrologic Prediction System (AHPS) river forecast points can be downloaded as well [5]. Many of these are co-located with USGS NWIS gages to leverage authoritative observation data.

References
[1] NHDPlus Version 2 [http://www.horizon-systems.com/NHDPlus/V2NationalData.php]
[2] Esri Living Atlas [https://livingatlas.arcgis.com]
[3] USGS NWIS [https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis]
[4] USGS WaterWatch [https://waterwatch.usgs.gov]
[5] NOAA AHPS [https://water.weather.gov/ahps/forecasts.php]

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Resource Resource
Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map
Created: Nov. 26, 2018, 4:01 a.m.
Authors: David Arctur · Erika Boghici

ABSTRACT:

This resource links to the Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map (Esri ArcGIS Online web app) [1] that provides a graphical overview and set of interactive maps to download flood depth grids, flood extent polygons, high water marks, stream gage observations, National Water Model streamflow forecasts, and several other datasets compiled before, during and after Hurricane Harvey.

References
[1] Hurricane Harvey Story Map [https://arcg.is/1GWyKi]

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Resource Resource
Hurricane Irma 2017 Story Map
Created: Nov. 26, 2018, 5:08 a.m.
Authors: David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This resource links to the Hurricane Irma 2017 Story Map (Esri ArcGIS Online web app) [1] that provides a graphical overview and set of interactive maps to download flood depth grids, flood extent polygons, high water marks, stream gage observations, National Water Model streamflow forecasts, and several other datasets compiled before, during and after Hurricane Irma.

References
[1] Hurricane Irma Story Map [https://arcg.is/19z9jL]

Referenced external maps
Irma crowdsource photos story map (NAPSG) [https://arcg.is/1WOr4b]

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Resource Resource
Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map
Created: Nov. 26, 2018, 5:30 a.m.
Authors: David Arctur · Erika Boghici

ABSTRACT:

This resource links to the Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map (Esri ArcGIS Online web app) [1] that provides a graphical overview and set of interactive maps to download flood depth grids, flood extent polygons, high water marks, stream gage observations, National Water Model streamflow forecasts, and several other datasets compiled before, during and after Hurricane Harvey.

November 2023 updates: Esri has deprecated the previous story map template, so a new story map has been generated. Most of the content is the same as before, with these exceptions:
- The Vulnerabilities and the Harvey Stories pages have been removed, due to nonfunctioning web links to other Harvey resources out of our control.
- Story map links to HydroShare resource pages have been updated to the most current HydroShare resource versions.

References
[1] Hurricane Harvey Story Map [https://arcg.is/1rWLzL0]

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Resource Resource
Texas Address and Base Layers Story Map
Created: Nov. 26, 2018, 5:43 a.m.
Authors: David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This resource links to the Texas Address and Base Layers Story Map (Esri ArcGIS Online web app) [1] that provides a graphical overview and set of interactive maps to download Texas statewide address points, as well as contextual map layers including roads, rail, bridges, rivers, dams, low water crossings, stream gauges, and others. The addresses were compiled over the period from June 2016 to December 2017 by the Center for Water and the Environment (CWE) at the University of Texas at Austin, with guidance and funding from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM). These addresses are used by TDEM to help anticipate potential impacts of serious weather and flooding events statewide.

For detailed compilation notes, see [2]. Contextual map layers will be found at [3] and [4].

November 2023 update: in 2019, TNRIS took over maintenance of the Texas Address Database, which is now updated annually as part of the StratMap program [5]. Also, TNRIS changed its name this year to the Texas Geographic Information Office (TxGIO). The StratMap and DataHub download sites still use the tnris.org domain but that may change .

References
[1] Texas Address and Base Layers story map [https://arcg.is/19PWu1]
[2] Texas-Harvey Basemap - Addresses and Boundaries [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/d2bab32e7c1d4d55b8cba7221e51b02d/]
[3] Texas Basemap - Hydrology Map Data [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/5efdb83e96da49c5aafe5159791e0ecc/]
[4] Texas Basemap - Transportation Map Data [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/106b38ab28b54f09a2c7a11b91269192/]
[5] TNRIS/TxGIO StratMap Address Points data downloads [https://tnris.org/stratmap/address-points/]

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Resource Resource
FEMA - Harvey Damage Assessments and Claims
Created: May 12, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains shapefiles for FEMA Damage Assessments, Auto Claims, Property Claims, and geodatabases for Hazus windfield data, publicly available here [see NOTE 1].
Damage assessments are organized in daily map layers. These appear to be cumulative, but some days' records do not include all the previous days' records.
- Aug 27, 2017: Coastal damage assessments (26,027 records)
- Aug 28: Damage assessments (78,218)
- Aug 29: Damage assessments (115,412)
- Aug 30: Damage assessments (137,754)
- Aug 31: Damage assessments (161,366)
- Sep 02: Damage assessments (156,099)
A document is provided that explains the damage assessment methodology.

Auto and Property Claims are each in a single shapefile, containing all records from Aug 25-Sep 08:
- Auto claims, Aug 25-Sep 08 (203, 312 records)
- Property claims, Aug 25-Sep 08 (226,167)
These identify location, date and type of loss. These are all claims submitted during this period, which may include damages not caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Other damage assessments and inundation depth grids are available at the FEMA Natural Hazard Risk Assessment Program (NHRAP) [2]. These include:
- Windfield contours [3]
- PDC Hazus Wind Adv26 (Hurrevac) [4]
- PDC Hazus Windfield geodatabases for Harvey [5]

References
NOTE 1: As of the summer of 2019, FEMA damage data was reorganized and moved to new URLs, which affected references [1,2,3,4,5]. Most of these data sources have been moved to https://disasters.geoplatform.gov/publicdata/NationalDisasters/2017/HurricaneHarvey/Data/. Some of the original datasets are no longer available from FEMA. The original and current datasets are available for download below in the contents list.

[1] FEMA Damage Assessments [https://disasters.geoplatform.gov/publicdata/NationalDisasters/2017/HurricaneHarvey/Data/DamageAssessments/]
[2] FEMA Natural Hazard Risk Assessment Program (NHRAP) [link no longer available]
[3] Harvey_WindSpeedContours.zip, see contents list below.
[4] PDC_HAZUS_Damage_Loss_Assessment_ADV26_26AUG17_2100UTC.PDF, see contents list below.
[5] PDC_HarveyResults.gdb.zip and PDC_HarveyWindfield.gdb.zip from [https://disasters.geoplatform.gov/publicdata/NationalDisasters/2017/HurricaneHarvey/Data/Hazus/PDC/Wind/], also in contents list below.

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Resource Resource
FEMA - Harvey Flood Depths Grid
Created: May 12, 2020, 7:43 p.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

This resource describes a dataset of gridded depth at horizontal resolution of 3 meters, published as an Esri ArcGIS geodatabase on November 15, 2017 by FEMA. This dataset is no longer accessible from FEMA, but is now uploaded to this HydroShare resource in the contents list. This product utilized Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) interpolation, four quality assurance measures (identifying dips, spikes, duplication, and inaccurate/unrealistic measurements). High Water Marks were obtained from the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD), US Geological Survey (USGS), and other inspection data. Elevation data comprised a mosaic of 3 meter resampled elevations from 1M & 3M LiDAR, and IFSAR data. One section of the IfSAR data was found to be erroneous, and replaced with a blended 10 meter section.
[This method description was from correspondence January 22, 2018, from Mark English, GeoSpatial Risk Analyst, FEMA Region VIII, Mitigation Division.]

See FEMA's Natural Disasters data site [1] for additional HWM-based depth grids and inundation polygons:
- Harris County Areas of Interest (AOIs) and Inundation Boundaries
- Harris County Depth Grids
- Aransas, Nueces, and San Patricio Coastal Depth Grids and Boundaries

Some of the data available below in the contents list is from the FIMA NHRAP program, which is no longer available from FEMA, as of the summer of 2019.

FEMA notes on these Modeled Preliminary Observations:
o Based on observed Water Levels at stream gauges interpolated along rivers, downsampled to 5m resolution DEM
o Depth grids updated with new observed peak crest as they become available
o Will include High Water Mark information as it becomes available
o Extents validated with remote sensing
o Use for determining damage levels on specific structures

References:
[1] FEMA Harvey data [https://disasters.geoplatform.gov/publicdata/NationalDisasters/2017/HurricaneHarvey/Data/]

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Resource Resource
ECMWF GloFAS - Harvey+Irma Flood Area Grids
Created: May 12, 2020, 8:12 p.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

These datasets were obtained from ECMWF/GloFAS on November 13, 2017, to include the flood forecast (area grid) for Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in the USA from August 15 - September 15, 2017. These are contained in netCDF files, one per day.

Note that while folders and files may have the words "areagrid_for_Harvey" in the name, all the data here are for the southeast USA, encompassing both Harvey and Irma impact areas.

Dataset variables:
- dis = forecasted discharge (for all forecast step 1+30 as initial value and 30 daily average values, with ensemble members as 1+50 where the first is the so-called control member and the 50 perturbed members)
- ldd = local drainage direction within routing model
- ups = upstream area of each point within routing model
- rl2,rl5,rl20 = forecast exceedance thresholds for 2-, 5- and 20-year return period flows, based on gumbel distribution from ERA-interim land reanalysis driven through the lisflood routing.

Models used (see [1] for further details):
- Hydrology: River discharge is simulated by the Lisflood hydrological model (van der Knijff et al., 2010) for the flow routing in the river network and the groundwater mass balance. The model is set up on global coverage with horizontal grid resolution of 0.1° (about 10 km in mid-latitude regions) and daily time step for input/output data.
- Meteorology: To set up a forecasting and warning system that runs on a daily basis with global coverage, initial conditions and input forcing data must be provided seamlessly to every point within the domain. To this end, two products are used. The first consists of operational ensemble forecasts of near-surface meteorological parameters. The second is a long-term dataset consistent with daily forecasts, used to derive a reference climatology.

Suggestions for usage:
- Selected software: ArcGIS or QGIS
- Select dis for example, then any of the bands (51*31 in total), then set the range manually to 0-1000 or something like that.

Agency:
GloFAS [1]
From its public website: "The Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS), jointly developed by the European Commission and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), is independent of administrative and political boundaries. It couples state-of-the art weather forecasts with a hydrological model and with its continental scale set-up it provides downstream countries with information on upstream river conditions as well as continental and global overviews. GloFAS produces daily flood forecasts in a pre-operational manner since June 2011."

References
[1] GloFAS home page [http://www.globalfloods.eu/]

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Resource Resource
NOAA NWC - Harvey National Water Model Streamflow Forecasts
Created: May 12, 2020, 8:14 p.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

The National Water Model (NWM) is a water forecasting model operated by the National Water Center (NWC) of the NOAA National Weather Service. The NWM continually forecasts flows on 2.7 million stream reaches covering 3.2 million miles of streams and rivers in the continental United States [1]. It operates as part of the national weather forecasting system, with inputs from NOAA numerical weather prediction models, and from weather and water conditions observed through the US Geological Survey's National Water Information System. Reference materials for the computational framework behind NWM is published by NCAR [9] [10].

The NWC generates NWM streamflow forecasts for the continental US (CONUS) with multiple forecast horizons and time steps. Due to the output file sizes, these are normally not available for download more than a couple days at a time [2]. However, for a time a 40-day rolling window of these forecasts was maintained by HydroShare at RENCI [3], and a complete retrospective (August 2016 to the present) of the NWM Analysis & Assimilation outputs is maintained as well (contact help@cuahsi.org for access).

An archive of all NWM forecasts for the period Aug 18 to Sept 10, 2017 has been compiled at RENCI [4] [5], available as netCDF (.nc) files totaling 8TB. These can be browsed, subsetted, visualized, and downloaded (see [6] [7] [8]). In addition to these output files, we have uploaded to this HydroShare resource the input parameter files needed to re-run the NWM for the Harvey period, or for any time period covered by NWM v1.1 and 1.2 (August 2016 to this publication date in August 2018). These parameter files are also made available at [1].

See README for further details and usage guidance. Please see NOAA contacts listed on [1] for questions about the NWM data contents, structure and formats. Contact help@cuahsi.org if any questions about HydroShare-based tools and data access.

References
[1] Overview of the NWM framework and output files [http://water.noaa.gov/about/nwm]
[2] Free access to all National Water Model output for the most recent two days [http://water.noaa.gov/about/nwm - scroll down to links under "Downloading Output"]
[3] NWM outputs for rolling 40-day window, maintained by HydroShare [link is no longer available]
[4] Archived Harvey NWM outputs via RENCI THREDDS server [http://thredds.hydroshare.org/thredds/catalog/nwm/harvey/catalog.html]
[5] RENCI is an Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
[6] Live map for National Water Model forecasts [http://water.noaa.gov/map]
[7] NWM Forecast Viewer app [no longer available]
[8] CUAHSI JupyterHub example scripts for subsetting NWM output files [https://hydroshare.org/resource/3db192783bcb4599bab36d43fc3413db/]
[9] WRF-Hydro Overview [https://ral.ucar.edu/projects/wrf_hydro/overview]
[10] WRF-Hydro User Guide 2015 [https://ral.ucar.edu/sites/default/files/public/images/project/WRF_Hydro_User_Guide_v3.0.pdf]

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Resource Resource
Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) for CONUS
Created: Sept. 2, 2020, 4:14 a.m.
Authors: Yan Liu

ABSTRACT:

Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) is an approach for estimating the vertical height of any point on the landscape from the nearest stream surface or bed. The first version 0.1 of this dataset is based on the U.S. Geological Survey's National Elevation Dataset (NED) with 10-meter horizontal resolution, comprising raster data for the 331 HUC-6 units in conterminous U.S. (CONUS), excluding the five units of the great lakes. This was developed at the UIUC CyberGIS supercomputing facility, and is now archived at the UT Austin TACC (Texas Advanced Computing Center) for download [1]. As of summer 2020, it has been updated to version 0.2, now hosted at Oak Ridge National Lab's HPC server [2]. The 2017 Harvey subset of CONUS HAND is at [3].

In 2023, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) computed the 3-meter HAND for Texas, see [4].

To interactively select HAND data by HUC6 basin in either the Harvey or Irma hydrologic study area, use the Harvey Archive Story Map [https://arcg.is/1rWLzL0] or the Irma Archive Story Map [http://arcg.is/PSOKH] and click on the HAND tab. To directly browse this data for anywhere in CONUS, visit [1] or [2].

References:
For a bibliography of technical papers leading to the development of HAND, see the PrimaryRefs_NWM-HAND_Jan2018.pdf file in the contents list below.
For an explanation of the contents of the nfiedata folder at TACC, see the README-Nfiedata_HAND.pdf file in the contents list below.

[1] University of Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) repository for version 0.1 of 10m CONUS HAND [https://web.corral.tacc.utexas.edu/nfiedata/]
[2] Most recent HAND products at ORNL [https://cfim.ornl.gov/data/]
[3] Harvey subset of national HAND [https://cfim.ornl.gov/data/nfiedata/Harvey/]
[4] 3m HAND for state of Texas computed by ORNL [https://web.corral.tacc.utexas.edu/nfiedata/pin2flood/texas/]

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Resource Resource
USGS - Harvey Gaged Streamflow Timeseries
Created: Nov. 2, 2023, 3:31 p.m.
Authors: · David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This resource provides datasets for stream discharge (flow rate) in cubic feet per second, and gage height (stream depth) from 924 active USGS gages in the Hurricane Harvey impact zone across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas (see shapefile for all gages).

These data were obtained from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) [1] using R scripts provided here. When running these R scripts, 745 of the 924 gages had gage height values, and 577 of the 924 had discharge values. For help in using these R scripts, USGS used to provide support tools but the links for those no longer work. I used R Studio on Windows for these retrievals.

Formats provided:
- Shapefile and csv for gage locations, including link to USGS gage details [1]
- Tabular (csv) datasets for timeseries of water discharge (flow rate) in cubic ft/sec, and timeseries of gage height in ft.
- R scripts to download timeseries data from NWIS

References
[1] USGS NWIS - interactive portal for stream gage site info [https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis]

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Collection Collection
Hurricane Harvey Flood Data Collections
Created: Nov. 2, 2023, 3:58 p.m.
Authors: David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This collection is for datasets of flood depths, flood extents, high water marks, streamflow, damages recorded, aerial oblique photos, and related subjects. This includes both forecast and observed data. These were primarily obtained from national agencies such as NOAA (weather related), USGS (surface water related), FEMA (surface water and damage related), and Civil Air Patrol (aerial photos).

Note on November 2023 updates: due to numerous updates among the resources linked below, this collection has been updated to point to the most recent resources.

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Resource Resource
Texas-Harvey Basemap - Addresses and Boundaries
Created: Nov. 2, 2023, 9:15 p.m.
Authors: David Arctur · David Maidment

ABSTRACT:

This site provides access to download an ArcGIS geodatabase or shapefiles for the 2017 Texas Address Database, compiled by the Center for Water and the Environment (CWE) at the University of Texas at Austin, with guidance and funding from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM). These addresses are used by TDEM to help anticipate potential impacts of serious weather and flooding events statewide. This is part of the Texas Water Model (TWM), a project to adapt the NOAA National Water Model [1] for use in Texas public safety. This database was compiled over the period from June 2016 to December 2017. A number of gaps remain (towns and cities missing address points), see Address Database Gaps spreadsheet below [4]. Additional datasets include administrative boundaries for Texas counties (including Federal and State disaster-declarations), Councils of Government, and Texas Dept of Public Safety Regions. An Esri ArcGIS Story Map [5] web app provides an interactive map-based portal to explore and access these data layers for download.

The address points in this database include their "height above nearest drainage" (HAND) as attributes in meters and feet. HAND is an elevation model developed through processing by the TauDEM method [2], built on USGS National Elevation Data (NED) with 10m horizontal resolution. The HAND elevation data and 10m NED for the continental United States are available for download from the Texas Advanced Computational Center (TACC) [3].

The complete statewide dataset contains about 9.28 million address points representing a population of about 28 million. The total file size is about 5GB in shapefile format. For better download performance, the shapefile version of this data is divided into 5 regions, based on groupings of major watersheds identified by their hydrologic unit codes (HUC). These are zipped by region, with no zipfile greater than 120mb:
- North Tx: HUC1108-1114 (0.52 million address points)
- DFW-East Tx: HUC1201-1203 (3.06 million address points)
- Houston-SE Tx: HUC1204 (1.84 million address points)
- Central Tx: HUC1205-1210 (2.96 million address points)
- Rio Grande-SW Tx: HUC2111-1309 (2.96 million address points)

Additional state and county boundaries are included (Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas), as well as disaster-declaration status.

Compilation notes: The Texas Commission for State Emergency Communications (CSEC) provided the first 3 million address points received, in a single batch representing 213 of Texas' 254 counties. The remaining 41 counties were primarily urban areas comprising about 6.28 million addresses (totaling about 9.28 million addresses statewide). We reached the GIS data providers for these areas (see Contributors list below) through these emergency communications networks: Texas 9-1-1 Alliance, the Texas Emergency GIS Response Team (EGRT), and the Texas GIS 9-1-1 User Group. The address data was typically organized in groupings of counties called Councils of Governments (COG) or Regional Planning Commissions (RPC) or Development Councils (DC). Every county in Texas belongs to a COG, RPC or DC. We reconciled all counties' addresses to a common, very simple schema, and merged into a single geodatabase.

November 2023 updates: In 2019, TNRIS took over maintenance of the Texas Address Database, which is now a StratMap program updated annually [6]. In 2023, TNRIS also changed its name to the Texas Geographic Information Office (TxGIO). The datasets available for download below are not being updated, but are current as of the time of Hurricane Harvey.

References:
[1] NOAA National Water Model [https://water.noaa.gov/map]
[2] TauDEM Downloads [https://hydrology.usu.edu/taudem/taudem5/downloads.html]
[3] NFIE Continental Flood Inundation Mapping - Data Repository [https://web.corral.tacc.utexas.edu/nfiedata/]
[4] Address Database Gaps, Dec 2017 (download spreadsheet below)
[5] Texas Address and Base Layers Story Map [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/6d5c7dbe0762413fbe6d7a39e4ba1986/]
[6] TNRIS/TxGIO StratMap Address Points data downloads [https://tnris.org/stratmap/address-points/]

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Collection Collection
Harvey Basemap Data Collections
Created: Nov. 2, 2023, 9:36 p.m.
Authors: David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This collection contains map data often used as base layers for hydrologic and geographic analysis, organized by these categories:
- Addresses and Boundaries (Texas address points, counties, Councils of Government boundaries, Texas Dept of Public Safety districts and regions)
- Hydrology for the Harvey study area across southeast Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas (streams, gages, dams, catchments, watersheds)
- Transportation (Texas roads, railways, bridges, low water crossings)
- Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This is used by the emergency response community to anticipate areas where social support systems are weaker, and residents may be more likely to need help.

These data layers generally date to 2015-2016, so could be considered reasonably representative of the base layers at the time of Hurricane Harvey.

Note on November 2023 updates: due to numerous updates among the resources linked below, this collection has been updated to point to the most recent resources.

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Resource Resource
Texas Basemap - Transportation Map Data
Created: Nov. 2, 2023, 9:44 p.m.
Authors: ·

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains statewide networks of roadways, railroads, bridges, and low-water crossings, for Texas only.

Roadways detail: The Transportation Planning and Programming (TPP) Division of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) maintains a spatial dataset of roadway polylines for planning and asset inventory purposes, as well as for visualization and general mapping. M values are stored in the lines as DFOs (Distance From Origin), and provide the framework for managing roadway assets using linear referencing. This dataset covers the state of Texas and includes on-systems routes (those that TxDOT maintains), such as interstate highways, U.S. highways, state highways, and farm and ranch roads, as well as off-system routes, such as county roads and local streets. Date valid as of: 12/31/2014. Publish Date: 05/01/2015. Update Frequency: Quarterly.

Bridges detail: As with the roadways, both on-system and off-system bridges are maintained in separate datasets (54,844 total bridges, 36,007 on-system and 18,837 off-system). Bridges have numerous useful attributes, see coding guide [1] for documentation. One such attribute identifies structures that cross water: the second digit of Item 42 “Type of Service”. If the second digit is between 5 and 9 (inclusive) then the structure is over water. The bridges datasets are valid as of December 2016.

The roadways and bridges datasets contained here were obtained directly from TxDOT through personal correspondence. An additional transportation data resource is the Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS) [3]. The railroads and low-water crossings were obtained through TNRIS.

November 2023 updates: in the years since this data archive was first published, TxDOT has developed an open data portal for downloading their roadway inventory and other datasets. Also, in 2023 TNRIS was renamed as the Texas Geographic Information Office (TxGIO). Their datahub [3] is continually evolving, but still has the tnris.org domain for now. We are not updating any of the basemap data in the contents list below, which was current at the time of Hurricane Harvey.

References
[1] TxDOT Bridges Coding Guide (download below)
[2] TxDOT Open Data Portal [https://gis-txdot.opendata.arcgis.com/]
[3] TNRIS/TxGIO data downloads [https://data.tnris.org/]

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Resource Resource
Texas Basemap - Lidar Elevation Data (DEM)
Created: Nov. 2, 2023, 9:57 p.m.
Authors: ·

ABSTRACT:

This resource contains Lidar-DEM collection status shapefiles from the Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS) [http://tnris.org].
November 2023 updates: this year, TNRIS changed its name to Texas Geographic Information Office (TxGIO). The domain name hasn't changed yet, but the data hub is continually evolving. See [1], [2] for current downloadable data.

For purposes of Hurricane Harvey studies, the 1-m DEM for Harris County (2008) has also been uploaded here as a set of 4 zipfiles containing the DEM in tiff files. See [1] for a link to the current elevation status map and downloadable DEMs.
Project name: H-GAC 2008 1m
Datasets: 1m Point Cloud, 1M Hydro-Enforced DEM, 3D Breaklines, 1ft and 5ft Contours
Points per sq meter: 1
Total area: 3678.56 sq miles
Source: Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC)
Acquired by: Merrick, QA/QC: Merrick
Catalog: houston-galveston-area-council-h-gac-2008-lidar

References:
[1] TNRIS/TxGIO StratMap elevation data [https://tnris.org/stratmap/elevation-lidar/]
[2] TNRIS/TxGIO DataHub [https://data.tnris.org/]

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Resource Resource
CDC Social Vulnerability Index 2014
Created: Nov. 2, 2023, 11:02 p.m.
Authors:

ABSTRACT:

This is the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) [1]. This is often used by the emergency response community to anticipate areas where social support systems are weaker, and residents may be more likely to need help. A map viewer for the national database can be found here [2].

November 2023 updates: at the time of Hurricane Harvey, the latest SVI was based on 2014 census data. The CDC SVI website and feature services have since changed. See the current (updated) links for more details.

Subsets of CDC's 2014 SVI for the Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma hydrologic study areas can be downloaded from the contents list below.

[1] SVI web site [https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/index.html
[2] SVI interactive map [https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/interactive_map.html]

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Resource Resource
Texas Address and Base Layers Story Map
Created: Nov. 2, 2023, 10:42 p.m.
Authors: David Arctur

ABSTRACT:

This resource links to the Texas Address and Base Layers Story Map (Esri ArcGIS Online web app) [1] that provides a graphical overview and set of interactive maps to download Texas statewide address points, as well as contextual map layers including roads, rail, bridges, rivers, dams, low water crossings, stream gauges, and others. The addresses were compiled over the period from June 2016 to December 2017 by the Center for Water and the Environment (CWE) at the University of Texas at Austin, with guidance and funding from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM). These addresses are used by TDEM to help anticipate potential impacts of serious weather and flooding events statewide.

For detailed compilation notes, see [2]. Contextual map layers will be found at [3] and [4].

November 2023 update: in 2019, TNRIS took over maintenance of the Texas Address Database, which is now updated annually as part of the StratMap program [5]. Also, TNRIS changed its name this year to the Texas Geographic Information Office (TxGIO). The StratMap and DataHub download sites still use the tnris.org domain but that may change .

References
[1] Texas Address and Base Layers story map [https://arcg.is/19PWu1]
[2] Texas-Harvey Basemap - Addresses and Boundaries [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/3e251d7d70884abd928d7023e050cbdc/]
[3] Texas Basemap - Hydrology Map Data [https://doi.org/10.4211/hs.adb14c9c073e4eee8be82fadb21a0a93/]
[4] Texas Basemap - Transportation Map Data [https://www.hydroshare.org/resource/ab3a463be73c4fd988a492b5d1b4c573/]
[5] TNRIS/TxGIO StratMap Address Points data downloads [https://tnris.org/stratmap/address-points/]

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Resource Resource
Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map
Created: Nov. 3, 2023, 12:37 a.m.
Authors: David Arctur · Erika Boghici

ABSTRACT:

This resource links to the Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map (Esri ArcGIS Online web app) [1] that provides a graphical overview and set of interactive maps to download flood depth grids, flood extent polygons, high water marks, stream gage observations, National Water Model streamflow forecasts, and several other datasets compiled before, during and after Hurricane Harvey.

November 2023 updates: Esri has deprecated the previous story map template, so a new story map has been generated. Most of the content is the same as before, with these exceptions:
- The Vulnerabilities and the Harvey Stories pages have been removed, due to nonfunctioning web links to other Harvey resources out of our control.
- Story map links to HydroShare resource pages have been updated to the most current HydroShare resource versions.

References
[1] Hurricane Harvey Story Map [https://arcg.is/1rWLzL0]

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Collection Collection

ABSTRACT:

Quick Start
This is a collection of flood datasets to support hydrologic research for Hurricane Harvey, August-September 2017. The best way to start exploring this collection is by opening the Hurricane Harvey 2017 Story Map [2]. It has separate sections for the different content categories, and links to the relevant HydroShare resources within this collection.

More Details
This is the root collection resource for management of hydrologic and related data collected during Hurricane Harvey on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf coast. This collection holds numerous composite resources comprising streamflow forecasts, inundation polygons and depth grids, flooding impacts, elevation grids, high water marks, and numerous other related information sources. Texas address points are included to support estimating storm and flood impacts in terms of structures within an affected area.

The data providers for this collection are the Texas Division of Emergency Management, NOAA National Weather Service, NOAA National Hurricane Center, NOAA National Water Center, FEMA, 9-1-1 emergency communications agencies, and many others. Esri and Kisters also provided invaluable tools, data and geoprocessing services to support the initial data production, and these are included or referenced.

User-contributed resources from 2017 US Hurricanes may also be shared with The CUAHSI 2017 Hurricane Data Community group [1] to make them accessible to interested researchers, Anyone may join this group.

An ArcGIS Story Map [2] has been created which provides example data views and interactive access to this collection.

This collection has been produced by work on a US National Science Foundation RAPID Award "Archiving and Enabling Community Access to Data from Recent US Hurricanes" [3].

References
[1] CUAHSI 2017 Hurricane Data Community group [https://www.hydroshare.org/group/41]
[2] Hurricane Harvey 2017 Archive Story Map [https://arcg.is/1rWLzL0]
[3] NSF RAPID Grant [https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1761673]

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