Applied Science Associates, Inc.

GIS improvements allow prediction of hazards, risks posed by disasters, both natural and manmade

Contact: Nicole Whittier
Phone: 401-789-6224
March, 2004

Since September 11, the burgeoning field of homeland security has upped the demand for more sophisticated GIS technology to assess environmental and security risks and vulnerabilities.

Applied Science Associates (ASA) just announced major improvements to computer models to now allow existing ESRI GIS users to seamlessly activate complex sophisticated predictive numerical models and evaluate hazards based on existing GIS databases.

State agencies with responsibility for environmentally sensitive areas can now predict potential oil spill impacts to land and water or evaluate health impacts in the air to populated areas, schools and other high-priority sites.

Chris Galagan, ASA GIS manager, says, "The color graphics make it very easy to interpret the predictive model results in a geographic context. The models work well with web-based client applications, allows for data distribution, and integration across different government agency platforms."

The improved ASA products include:

" AIRMAP--Atmospheric Dispersion Model

" CHEMMAP--Chemical Dispersion Model

" CMSMAP--Crisis Management System

" COASTMAP--Real-time Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Modeling System

" OILMAP--Oil Spill Model for Marine and Freshwater

" OILMAPDEEP--Deep Water Oil Spill Model

" OILMAPLAND--Oil and Chemical Spill Model for Land

" SARMAP--Search and Rescue Model

One of the main challenges is integrating systems that exist in different places, such as the Department of Defense and other departments and agencies. The federal government is standardizing its GIS technology, with desktop software and the Commercial Joint Mapping Toolkit (C/JMTK) from ESRI being the most widely used. The ASA models are now available as extensions to the ArcGIS desktop applications, making them available to all government agencies using ESRI GIS technology.

"The advantage of these improvements in GIS is that it can display predictive information visually so that responders can act quickly to emergency events. You have to know if the event is spreading and where it's spreading", Galagan said.

About ASA

Founded in 1979, ASA helps clients understand and manage marine and freshwater environments worldwide. Combining proprietary computer modeling tools with the consulting capabilities of an exceptionally diverse technical staff, the firm provides a broad range of services to international, national and local government agencies, private industry and educational institutions. ASA has extensive experience with clients involved in oil and gas, power generation, ports and harbors, wastewater, coastal management and crisis response, ecological risk assessment, hydrodynamics, dredging, water quality and coastal engineering.

In addition to its Narragansett, RI headquarters, ASA has offices in Australia, Brazil, France and Scotland. The company's website, www.appsci.com, contains numerous scientific reports written by its staff and extensive information about its services.