Space and Time Changes in Neighborhood Recovery After a Disaster Using a Spatial Video Acquisition System

Abstract

This chapter uses the case of Hurricane Katrina to show how an advance in geospatial data collection initially used to improve damage assessment can also provide utility throughout other phases of the emergency management cycle. A spatial video acquisition system (SVAS), employed as a disaster assessment tool because of Katrina-related response deficiencies, is described in terms of its genesis, and its application in the ongoing recovery phase of the disaster. The SVAS is discussed conceptually as a new approach for capturing the spatially and temporally dynamic urban environments of a post-disaster neighborhood; for example, collecting data that can be used as a proxy for disaster-related health vulnerability, especially psychopathology. The ability to collect such a dynamic data set has previously been lacking in post-disaster health research.