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Track: Emergency Management and Public Safety
Lin Cao
University of Carolina at Charlotte
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223
Telephone: 704-548-8946
Fax: 704-547-3182
E-mail: lcao@uncc.edu
Weining Xiang, Joseph Wilson
GIS Application for Lightning Damage Analysis
Defining Issue: Lightning can cause serious damage to property. In this study, the correlation between the lightning damage and the geographic components are studied and high-potential lightning areas will be predicted based on the study results. GIS Solution: A GIS-based system for predicting the high-potential lightning strike areas was provided. It could be helpful in decreasing lightning damage in certain areas, and determining factors that influence the lightning strike pattern. Methodology: One strike in Charlotte-Mecklenburg county did at least $65,000 in damage. On average, a homeowner can expect a damaging strike once every 100 to 200 years. Lightning tends to occur most often in certain areas, according to records kept (since 1993) as cited by firefighters in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County. It shows about 20% of reported strikes of building for the past three years within an area near NC 51. The study area was Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. A GIS approach was performed in this
study. The lightning damage data came from the Fire Department. Soil data was obtained from the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), Building Structures came from Department of Engineering of Charlotte-Mecklenburg county and the topographic data format was DEM (Digital Elevation Model). All of these data were integrated into a GIS model by using the street centerline file (1:100,000) as the base map. The spatial association lighting damage was analyzed with the above components. A visual map of the study result is available in the final report. Software: The application was written using ArcInfo and the display was using ArcView. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the application of GIS.
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