Dca NNH11CD21CBIO-ANALYTICS, INC.

Description of requirement

OVER THE LAST TWO DECADES HEAT WAVES WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR MORE DEATHS IN THE U.S. THAN ANY OTHER NATURAL HAZARD AND FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGES ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE THE FREQUENCY, DURATION, AND MAGNITUDE OF HEAT EVENTS. THE U.S. GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH PROGRAM IDENTIFIED MAPPING AND MODELING TOOLS FOR IDENTIFYING POPULATIONS VULNERABLE TO CLIMATE CHANGES AS ONE OF THE MOST URGENT REQUIREMENTS. THIS PROJECT WILL PROVIDE HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AND RISK ASSESSORS WITH AN ADVANCED GEOSPATIAL WEB-BASED SYSTEM FOR PREPARING AND RESPONDING TO EMERGENCY HEAT EVENTS, DEVELOPING MITIGATION STRATEGIES, AND EDUCATING THE PUBLIC TO REDUCE HEAT-RELATED MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY IN THE UNITED STATES. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO EVALUATE THE FEASIBILITY OF INTEGRATING MULTI-SCALE REMOTELY SENSED IMAGERY, DEMOGRAPHIC, AND HEALTH DATA IN INTERNET-BASED SOFTWARE TO ENABLE HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TO RAPIDLY IDENTIFY POPULATIONS AT RISK FROM EXTREME HEAT EVENTS. KNOWLEDGE OF LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE AND VEGETATION CHARACTERISTICS AT A RELATIVELY HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION (E.G., 30M) IS REQUIRED TO EFFECTIVELY IDENTIFY AT-RISK POPULATIONS. THIS PROJECT WILL TEST THE FEASIBILITY OF USING ENVIRONMENTAL DATA PROVIDED BY THE RECENTLY COMPLETED NASA WEB-ENABLED LANDSAT DATA (WELD) FOR HEAT-RISK MAPPING. WELD DATA WILL BE INTEGRATED WITH DEMOGRAPHIC, SOCIO-ECONOMIC, AND HEALTH DATA IN A HEAT-RISK MODEL USING BIOMEDWARE'S ADVANCED SPACE-TIME INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM (STIS) TECHNOLOGY, WHICH WAS FUNDED BY OVER $2.5 MILLION IN GRANTS FROM THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH. THE SPECIFIC AIMS OF THIS PROJECT ARE: 1) DEVELOP AND TEST A PROTOTYPE SYSTEM FOR ACCESSING AND INCORPORATING NASA WEB-ENABLED LANDSAT DATA (WELD) WITH EXISTING DEMOGRAPHIC, SOCIO-ECONOMIC, AND HEALTH DATA USING BIOMEDWARE'S WEB-BASED SOFTWARE, AND 2) TEST THE SYSTEM USING A CASE STUDY (DETROIT, MICHIGAN), EVALUATE THE RESULTS WITH INPUT FROM END-USER COMMUNITIES, AND PUBLISH THE FINDINGS. WE ANTICIPATE THAT THIS TYPE OF SYSTEM WILL BE OF INTEREST NATIONWIDE AND WILL ENHANCE PREPAREDNESS FOR HEAT EVENTS, THUS REDUCING THE ADVERSE HEALTH AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES.