case study: cyclone winston, fiji · nadi. once on the ground, quilter established contact with the...
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Learn Together Prepare Together Act Together
Case Study: Cyclone Winston, Fiji
2Tonkin + Taylor: Case Study - Cyclone Winston, Fiji
Rapid collection of damage reconnaissance
using Project Orbit
The first significant earthquake of the Canterbury
Earthquake Sequence (2010-2011) occurred on
4 September 2010, requiring a dedicated team
of scientists and engineers acting on behalf of
the Earthquake Commission to begin the task of
mapping land damage.
For Tonkin + Taylor (T+T), this big picture damage
assessment has been a routine initial part of
any major natural disaster event response since
20041, so that damage recovery efforts can be
appropriately triaged and the worst damage
attended to first.
On 23 February 2011, a day after the most
destructive earthquake, Mike Lee, one of T+T’s
IT specialists and an ex NZ Fire Service (NZFS),
knew that some of his former work mates had
been deployed to Christchurch with the USAR
team. He phoned them and asked if they would
like T+T to open a web-based viewing platform
that would allow NZFS to share their imagery.
A T+T internet-based viewing platform named
Project Orbit, originally developed for major
infrastructure projects, was modified to collate
this valuable reconnaissance information. It was
a light-bulb moment: For the first time in New
Zealand, a team working in a disaster operations
centre had access to a web-based portal to
source critical information and up-to-date
imagery including critical damage maps helping
to expedite the first-response process.
Field reconnaissance information on Project
Orbit was soon after augmented by aerial
photography and LiDAR (aerial laser survey data).
The quantity of data being collected presented
enormous challenges for engineers as to how to
best use this information.
Communication of damage reconnaissance
using the Canterbury Geotechnical Database
T+T developed the Canterbury Geotechnical
Database (CGD) initially for EQC and then for
the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority
(CERA) so that all response, recovery and
research agencies and private sector (insurers,
engineers, architects, planners) could have a
web-based portal to access information as soon
as it became available.
This initiative created a central collaboration
portal and identified key assets and risks for
central and local government, as well as all
of the main insurance companies and
re-insurers. Making spatial Information
available as soon as possible is fundamental
if natural disaster response and recovery is
to be efficient and effective.
The CGD has since been transferred to the
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
(MBIE), and is now the NZGD, an open source/
open access cloud based information database
available to everyone. It contains aerial
photography, LiDAR, borehole logs and a host of
other vital information.
Learnings from Christchurch
1 Likely to result in more than 1000 claims
3Tonkin + Taylor: Case Study - Cyclone Winston, Fiji
Cyclone Winston Response
T+T is an engineering and environmental
consulting firm based in New Zealand with more
than 40 years of experience in the Pacific Islands.
It was clear that recent learnings and
development in natural hazard damage
reconnaissance in Christchurch presented
significant opportunities for application in
the Pacific.
In discussions with the NZ Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Trade (MFAT), T+T proposed that the
initial response and recovery from a natural
disaster could be better coordinated in the
Pacific if there was a single information portal
that all relief and recovery agencies could
access. Less than a year after talking to MFAT,
the idea was put to the test.
As Cyclone Winston approached Fiji on 19
February 2016, T+T established a Project Orbit
platform (Cyclone Winston Viewer) for the event
and contacted MFAT and NZ Defense Force
(NZDF) to see if a T+T natural disaster specialist
could get onboard the P-3 Orion to map damage
from the air.
Unfortunately there were no seats available,
so T+T independently dispatched engineer
Peter Quilter on the first commercial flight into
Nadi. Once on the ground, Quilter established
contact with the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA),
got on the road and started photographing and
field-mapping the damage.
T+T began to populate the platform with land-
based damage imagery. UNOCHA provided several
data disks containing declassified oblique aerial
photos taken by the NZDF P-3 Orion. His review
of these photographs revealed unparalleled land
and building damage detail, albeit in a form that
was not accessible or easily used.
Over several nights Quilter and Mike Lee worked
together to upload this valuable imagery onto
a Project Orbit platform set up specifically for
Cyclone Winston. Photographs were displayed
on a GIS map viewer allowing all agencies within
4 days of the cyclone to understand the extent
of available information and the level of damage
throughout Fiji.
Photos of Cyclone Winston damage uploaded from field reconnaissance
4Tonkin + Taylor: Case Study - Cyclone Winston, Fiji
Meanwhile T+T’s John Leeves coordinated the
T+T Natural Hazard Resilience Team back in
Auckland who were to analyzing damage
from the photographs creating damage
maps and uploading this information back
onto the platform.
Additional information was added to the
portal such as:
• Status of road closures
• Location of evacuation centres
• Location of red cross offices
• Locations where NGOs were working.
Oblique photos uploaded from the NZDF P-3 Orion over flights of the Cyclone Winston damage.
This insert enlargement shows the high resolution of the NZDF photography. The agencies using this information included UNOCHA, MFAT, DFAT, Fiji Government, SPC, Red Cross and NDRF (including Save the Children, UNICEF, Salvation Army, Oxfam, Adventist Development Relief Agency, Habitat for Humanity, Rotary New Zealand, Christian World Service, Tearfund and World Vision).
5Tonkin + Taylor: Case Study - Cyclone Winston, Fiji
Leeves also liaised with key NGO and
international aid organisations and NZ aid
partners through the New Zealand Council for
International Development (NZCID).
It was the first time that a web-based
information portal had been accessible
to all relief agencies, Government, and
Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in the
immediate aftermath of a major natural disaster
anywhere in the Pacific. The portal can be
accessed below. Note that various layers can
be turned on and off.
https://projectorbit.maps.arcgis.com/apps/
webappviewer/index.html?id=fd9070fb3a7f429b
b6c10ad49f4a34c1
The Australian Government’s Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) stated that
Project Orbit is "by far one of the most useful,
fused and aesthetic products seen so far".
Recognizing the value of this service DFAT
subsequently uploaded their entire catalog
of aerial declassified photographs onto
Project Orbit.
UNOHCA stated: “It is not easy to make images
captured by the NZ Airforce accessible and
useful to typical disaster managers, but the T+T
system allows this great resource to be part of
the operational decision-making".
The rapid process of collecting and sharing
natural disaster damage information via this
platform has been dubbed “Rapid Damage
Mapping.” The application of the lessons from
Canterbury to a major natural disaster in the
Pacific has demonstrated what can be achieved
by preparing together and acting together.
In this instance T+T undertook all of the
assistance work - on the ground in Fiji, setting
up and operating the web-based ARC-GIS
information platform in New Zealand, and
natural disaster damage mapping – pro bono.
The Cyclone Winston response and recovery
has been widely recognised as one of the most
well-coordinated and successful relief efforts
undertaken anywhere in the world.
Cyclone Winston Response Viewer
6Tonkin + Taylor: Case Study - Cyclone Winston, Fiji
Damage maps were compiled and uploaded.
The Council for International Development,
through the NGO Disaster Relief Forum (NDRF),
has undertaken a review of the response in its
document A Softer Landing, Tropical Cyclone
Winston After-Action.
Learnings that were taken directly from
Canterbury and applied in action come in for
particular note: “New information sharing
tools developed for NDRF use – notably the
online mapping of humanitarian needs and
activities conducted by Tonkin + Taylor –
were acknowledged as assisting in needs
assessments and coordination.”
The early deployment of the NZDF P-3 Orion
surveillance planes provided some of the earliest
visual data on the extent of the physical damage
caused by Winston.
“A particularly novel and positive development
was the collaboration between Tonkin + Taylor
and NZDF, integrating surveillance photographs
onto T+T maps, providing a coherent and
country-wide visual damage assessment that
helped inform NDRF member relief planning.”
Lessons from Canterbury made a significant
contribution to ensuring that Fiji could recover
remarkably quickly from the most destructive
cyclone to ever hit a Pacific island nation.
www.tonkintaylor.co.nz