Hurricane Project Overview

Description

Throughout this course we’ll be learning new analytical approaches and technologies as applied to a common topic and central dataset. In doing so, we’ll be able to compare the strengths and limitations of each approach with more clarity, allowing you to later decide which approach (or mix of approaches) might be best applicable to a topic of your own choosing.

The topic we will explore this semester is an evaluation of hurricane patterns over the last century. We’ll access data collected by the national Hurricane Center & National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) that include storm tracks for the North Atlantic basin, pulling in additional datasets as needed for various related analyses. We’ll explore patterns over time and space, using techniques to gather, organize, analyze, visualize, and communicate our results.

Task 1: Develop and share an interactive Hurricane Analysis Tool Using ArcGIS Pro

We begin by using familiar ArcGIS Pro to develop a workflow and interactive tool that allows us to explore which US counties have been affected by hurricanes for a specific storm, for a specified time frame, or across a series of time frames.

  • Create a project workspace for analysis
  • Add and organize data required for our analysis:
    • Hurricane track data in CSV format: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ibtracs/index.php?name=wmo-data
    • US County features with demographic data
  • Create a geoprocessing model to select storm track records for a specific named storm, create its storm track, identify counties intersected by that storm track, displaying results in the map viewer.
  • Update the geoprocessing model to iterate through a range of range of storm seasons.
  • Package and share your geoprocessing models

Task 2: Create a number of visualizations to explore patterns in hurricane impacts using ArcGIS Pro

Task 3: Create a story map of your visualizations in ArcGIS Online

Task 4: Create a dashboard of your visualizations in ArcGIS Online