This paper will describe the Charleston County Project Impact Initiative to provide state-of-the-art GIS capability to all residents of Charleston County through Internet access to data. As residents are able to learn more about the nature and extent of hazards they face, they may prepare to minimize the loss of property and life associated with hazard events.
Charleston County is the largest county in South Carolina with 1,357 miles and 100 miles of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. The County is situated on a low coastal plain with large areas of marsh and swamp. The proximity to sea level is very conducive to high storm surges during hurricanes as well as shallow coastal flooding that frequently occurs with high tides and scattered thunderstorms. The area is also prone to earthquakes, the most significant being the 1886 earthquake with 7.3 on the Richter Scale. There have been over 100 minor seismic events since 1992. The Charleston Area is also prone to tornadoes, wildfires, and drought.
The Charleston County Area Project Impact GIS Committee consists of the following entities:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
United States Geological Survey
US Army Corps of Enigineers
Berkeley Charleston Dorchester Council of Governments
City of Charleston
City of North Charleston
Town of Mt. Pleasant
Charleston County Building Services
Charleston County Information Technology Services
Charleston County Planning Department
Charleston County Public Works
In addition there will be cooperative support through the following additional agencies:
Federal Emergency Management Agency
South Carolina Emergency Preparedness Division
South Carolina Department of Insurance
South Carolina Department of Transportation
Charleston County Assessor
Charleston County Emergency Preparedness Division
Charleston County Register of Mesne Conveyance
Charleston Southern University's Earthquake Education Center
Habitat for Humanity
These groups will provide the input of information, support of the effort, and/or benefit from the result of the Internet Map Server Application, in additon to this information tool available to the public. The County-wide program, including all of the municipal and public service jurisdictions begins with the currently available base map and property information with daily updates provided by the Assessor which is the foundation of this program. A layer of all recorded flood losses from Federal, State, and Local resources has been created with the conversion program from the Federal to State coordinates provides specific parcel identification of the loss. High water marks, USGS Stream Gauge Data, and Santee Cooper Dam failure information will be used to supplement the flood loss data. A second effort of contour management is also in process. One foot contour data is essential for accuracy in the "Lowcountry." The entire County of Charleston has been flown for updated property and contour information. This will be supplemented with the SC Department of Transportation highway data, ground control survey data, and other locally available supporting information. The maintenance of the data will be supported by the site plan review process for all new development which requires one foot contours, sewer, water, storm drainage, tree survey, and building specifics which are field verified and scanned as an overlay. In addition the Public Works Department provides data on the County's drainage system, easements, and drainage maintenance activity. They also maintain, in conjunction with the SC Department of Natural Resources', Geological Survey Soils and Hydrography data. The Planning Department currently has parcel by parcel zoning determinations and is responsible for mintaining that data base. They are also responsible for our Emergency Preparedness Division, including Emergency Operations Center Activation. In conjunction with the Planning Department and EOC Operations the Department of Building Services provides initial parcel by parcel damage assessment data. This system with the ArcIMS application will provide simultaneous data to the South Carolina Department of Insurance, SC Emergency Preparedness Division, FEMA and anyone else who may need disaster response data. The Building Services Department, in addition to maintaining flood loss data, is also providing existing building flood elevation data, digital elevation, floodproofing, breakaway wall certification and digital pictures of the structure taken at final inspection. As the Department responsible for floodplain management, they intend to assume flood zone mapping under FEMA's Cooperating Technical Communities program upon completion of the one foot contour portion of the project, replacing the current use of FEMA's Q3 data system.
The hurricane storm surge maps produced by the US Army Corps of Engineers will be made availabe via the IMS application for citizens and is also used for pre disaster loss estimation. Hurricane Floyd resulted in the largest peacetime evacuation to ever occur in the United States. This project will create the ability to produce customized evacuation maps to be distributed to each address with the tax bills and control phased evacuations. These maps will be of great assistance to the public and hopefully avoid such a scenario that occurred with Hurricane Floyd. The IMS application will be used in conjunction with Charleston Southern University's Earthquake Education Center to record and monitor these occurrences, plot potential soil liquefaction areas, and better educate the public on the risks of earthquakes. This data, along with other available layers will assist the ability to predict damage from various events before they occur. Charleston Area Project Impact, in a client based partnership with Habitat for Humanity will be producing a SSL protocol layer to track substandard housing and families in need. This layer will be in conjunction with Building Services own substandard layer The ArcIMS program will be a clearinghouse of data and information, not just for the public, but also to improve information exchange within the County. Coordination of the Assessor, Records of Mesne Conveyance, Planning, Public Works into a data clearinghouse capable of providing online access including the latest digital maps available to any individual or agency in need of the information in the database.