The International Water Institute has just launched a three-year, $5 million project to create a detailed elevation map for the Red River Basin, covering parts of North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. The detailed maps are primarily needed for flood forecasting, but will also prove useful for transportation, agriculture and natural resource management.
There’s been a need for better elevation mapping in this area ever since the Red River flooded in 1997. I ran a feature about the use of geospatial technology to respond to this disaster when I was at GeoWorld. The feature contained an unforgettable photo of a large brick building on fire in downtown Grand Forks surrounded by water. The photo showed a slurry bomber dropping bright orange flame retardent as the building burned. The photo above shows the aftermath.
It’s somewhat surprising that it’s taken this long for them to get a highly detailed digital elevation model to help avert future floods. Granted the tools to create a high-resolution elevation model have dramatically improved since 1997, and the cost has also come down considerably.
In addition to the elevation model, the International Water Institute also has a Flood Forecast Display Tool, which is a web-based decision support tool for flood monitoring. The site has a number of stakeholder sponsors and seems to be well used and well maintained. Not only in there a web interface, there’s also the ability to download GIS information from the site.
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Seriously exciting! I majored in Geography as a foundation for contributions I have to make in Regional Land-Use Zoning, Community Planning … and later found I can do some house design too. Hazard Mitigation as applied in Zoning & Building Codes is 1 area of great interest. GIS was just a dream for us then. I’m seeking a map of the extent of this flood, after a chat with a friend about moving to high ground vs. higher levees. I’ll be back to visit your site!