Increasing the Availability and Utility of Weather and Climate Data to Meet Decision Maker Needs

Climate variability and the increased frequency of climate-related risks are redefining how communities address urban development and planning, Better storm risk assessment will lead directly to better preparedness which will save lives, reduce costs, and increase resiliency. Riverside proposes a data integration and visualization tool that will enable communities to assess climate-related risks, visualize the impacts and potential adaptation measures, and communicate real-time information at a neighborhood scale. Riverside will couple our multi-hazard decision support systems operational expertise with the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Asheville's National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC). The Riverside/NEMAC team will design and develop Application Programming Interface (API) services to dynamically discover, access, and present to users various components of the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC's) severe weather database. We propose to create an online application that links the current severe weather data base products, including NCDC's Severe Weather Data Inventory (SWDI), to social and demographic databases to allow users to assess populations and infrastructure at risk. This is a "connecting technology solution" that will bridge the gap between the rich databases at NCDC and the required application that the end users need.