Mapping A Disaster Anthony Baxter Google during MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference 2009 Monday 1 June 2009

1. Mapping a Disaster
Anthony Baxter, Google
arb@google.com

2. February 7, 2009
Worst fires in
Australian history

3. 173 dead

5. horrific conditions
46.4C !

6. fires started sat 7 feb

7. fires started sat 7 feb
still danger a week+
later

8. fires started sat 7 feb
still danger a week+
later
some fires burned a
month

9. 4,500 km 2 of land burned

10. many fires, across
the state

11. up to date information

12. ABC radio
government broadcaster
official emergency response network
24/7 radio coverage

13. official sources

14. official sources
Country Fire Authority:
private lands
www.cfa.vic.gov.au

15. official sources
Country Fire Authority:
private lands
www.cfa.vic.gov.au
Dept of Sustainability and Environment:
public lands
www.dse.vic.gov.au

17. problem #1

18. problem #1
server load
500 Server Error

19. problem #2

20. problem #2
locating these places

23. my brother
lives here

24. friend lives my brother
here lives here

25. friendʼs elderly
parents here
friend lives my brother
here lives here

26. but where are the fires?

27. who needs to know?

28. who needs to know?
people in danger

29. who needs to know?
people in danger
friends and family

30. who needs to know?
people in danger
friends and family
people following
the news

31. sunday morning

32. sunday morning
started thinking we
should do something

33. sunday morning
started thinking we
should do something

34. version one
scrape CFA RSS
geocode locations
publish as a flash map

35. mapvisage.appspot.com

36. 6 hours
initial
development

37. 6 hours
initial
development
(2 hours of that on
flash/IE debugging)

40. version two
automate geocoding
georss.org
google maps API
auto-refresh the map
search, links to relief agencies

41. <georss:point>
143.74774 -37.52654
</georss:point>
<georss:featuretypetag>
point
</georss:featuretypetag>

43. slight issue

44. slight issue
Fire service data not always clean

45. slight issue
Fire service data not always clean
“5KM SE WARBUTON TRK”

47. step three

48. step three
satellite imagery

49. step three
satellite imagery

51. NASA MODIS

52. NASA MODIS
TERRA and AQUA

53. NASA MODIS
TERRA and AQUA
250m resolution

54. NASA MODIS
TERRA and AQUA
250m resolution
daily coverage

55. NASA MODIS
TERRA and AQUA
250m resolution
daily coverage
IR detectors

56. NASA MODIS
TERRA and AQUA
250m resolution
daily coverage
IR detectors
rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov

57. polar orbit

58. polar orbit
online within
a few hours

62. serving the images

63. serving the images
geotiff images

64. serving the images
geotiff images
standard format for map tiles

65. serving the images
geotiff images
standard format for map tiles
standard file names

66. serving the images
geotiff images
stitch them together
standard format for map tiles
standard file names

67. problem

68. Googleʼs map
tile pipeline not
suited to
smaller jobs

69. Googleʼs map
tile pipeline not
suited to
smaller jobs
or repeated,
fast turnaround
jobs

70. maptiler

71. maptiler
gdal2tiles
(summer of code)

72. maptiler
gdal2tiles
(summer of code)
geotiff
⇓
tile images

73. appengine not currently
good at lots of files

74. appengine not currently
good at lots of files
serve from zip files

75. appengine not currently
good at lots of files
serve from zip files
6 zoom levels
~1000 images

77. HTTP Expiry Headers

78. HTTP Expiry Headers
Google Front Ends

79. HTTP Expiry Headers
Google Front Ends
Image tiles cached

80. HTTP Expiry Headers
Google Front Ends
Image tiles cached
code open sourced
“mapvisage” on
google code

81. HTTP Expiry Headers
Google Front Ends
Image tiles cached
code open sourced
“mapvisage” on
google code warning: code not
the prettiest

82. Automated tile
generation

83. Automated tile
generation
mostly

84. Automated tile
generation
mostly
stupid clouds

85. made map
embeddable

86. made map
embeddable
news sites

87. made map
embeddable
news sites
blog posts

88. made map
embeddable
news sites
blog posts
homepage promo

89. made map
embeddable
news sites
blog posts
homepage promo
peak:
8M map views/day
sustained:
60 hits/sec

90. benefits

91. benefits
reassurance for the worried

92. benefits
reassurance for the worried
better understanding of the fire scale

93. benefits
reassurance for the worried
better understanding of the fire scale
took load off fire service websites

94. lesson
enable people to reuse
your data

95. geocoded RSS ➙ maps
=
map of family/friends

96. going forward

97. geocoded RSS

98. geocoded RSS

99. geocoded RSS
more
please

100. more than fires

101. geo spatial
information
conveys vital
information

103. disasters

104. disasters
alerts

105. disasters
alerts
evacuations

106. loss of control?

107. loss of control?
something that frightens
agencies

108. loss of control?
something that frightens
agencies
donʼt be scared ☺

109. create clear license

110. create clear license
lay out terms for re-use

111. for instance

112. for instance
attribution

113. for instance
attribution
links

114. for instance
attribution
links
timeliness

115. for instance
attribution
links
timeliness

116. structure

117. structure
RSS/Atom are obvious choices

118. structure
RSS/Atom are obvious choices
think: how can I expose this data as RSS?

119. RSS/Atom

120. RSS/Atom
browsers/readers

121. RSS/Atom
browsers/readers
services to forward to SMS

122. structure

123. structure
attach times to data

124. structure
attach times to data
attach locations to data

125. structure
attach times to data
attach locations to data
donʼt make people guess

126. structure
attach times to data
attach locations to data
donʼt make people guess
use georss

127. you arenʼt the only
one who can find a
use for your data

128. open data

129. open data
especially when lives
may depend on it

130. you can make a
difference