Texas A&M Helps Flood Damage Assessment For Nicaragua
As Central and South America crawls out from the widespread destruction of Hurricane Mitch, researchers at Texas A&M University are using sophisticated mapping technology to help assess the damage.
"The desired final results of this effort are maps of the extent and type of destruction," Dr. Robert Maggio of the Mapping Sciences Laboratory in the forest science department said as analysis got under way on Friday. "These maps will be used by the Nicaraguan Ministry of Agriculture to plan relief efforts and assess the extent of crop loss."
The primary food crops of Nicaragua were ready for harvest when the rains began. Agricultural officials estimated these losses from the hurricane: 68 percent of the rice crop, 52 percent of pinto beans, 37 percent of maize, 22 percent of sorghum and 20 percent of soybeans.
"We will use this information for several things," said Jorge Rodriquez Rubi, a Geographic Information System specialist from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. "We will use it to quantify the damage done by Hurricane Mitch especially in agriculture, but also to determine where to move people from damaged areas and to determine where to plant crops that will provide quick relief for hunger and high calorie input for survivors."
Rubi said his country also will use the information to ask for international assistance. Because of its previous relationship with researchers here, Nicaraguan agriculture officials quickly contacted the mapping science experts at Texas A&M to see if such technology could be useful in helping the country determine where the needs are.
Maggio and Dr. Alan Jones, Texas A&M assistant vice chancellor for agriculture, began telephone conversations Oct. 31 with representatives of the Nicaraguan agriculture ministry.
"The intent was to acquire the most recent satellite imagery available that would map the extent of flooding," Maggio said. "We wanted to know which parts of the country were severely flooded, how much of the cropland was affected, which areas were affected by landslides, and what damage occurred to the country's road infrastructure."
Due to the cloud cover and the extent of flooding, Maggio explained, a satellite that provides visible imagery was not the most appropriate technology. "The decision was then made to use radar imagery. Radar penetrates cloud cover and provides good detection of standing water," the mapping expert said.
Maggio and Jones contacted RADARSAT International, a satellite imaging company based in Quebec, Canada, to determine the possibility of acquiring imagery for the country, and the Nicaragua agriculture ministry agreed to acquire the imagery.
Plans were made with RADARSAT to re-program the satellite to obtain the images on its next overpass, which was Tuesday (Nov. 3).
Two satellite images were pre-processed by RADARSAT and sent to the Mapping Sciences Laboratory on Thursday. In the meantime, Rubi arrived in College Station with GIS maps of the areas most affected by the flooding.
"These maps will be used as ground verification during the image processing and classification," Maggio said. "The satellite imagery is being processed to enhance the features that are to be classified. Once this is complete, the GIS maps will be overlaid onto the image and the croplands located."
The GIS reflects the locations of known croplands. The satellite image depicts flooding conditions after the rains. Remote sensing specialists Ramesh Sivanpillai and Noel Wright of the Mapping Sciences Laboratory are working with Rubi to classify the imagery.