Texas Disaster Information System (TDIS)
The Texas Disaster Information System is a critical tool for the state to assist Texas communities in the development of better disaster recovery and mitigation plans.
The GLO and Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) partnered with Texas A&M University’s (TAMU) Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas (IDRT), and the University of Texas (UT) as well as other state and federal partners, to design advanced online modeling tools to improve the state’s ability to predict, plan, prevent and respond to life-threatening natural disasters like flooding, drought and wildfires. The collaborating agencies have been laying the groundwork over the past year.
The GLO is providing $12.4 million to design and implement the system as well as an additional $30 million for the execution and maintenance of the system. While partnering with the creation of TDIS, the GLO is concurrently conducting the Combined River Basin Flood Studies, which will result in detailed flood risk information and mitigation strategies for the counties that received a presidential disaster declaration due to the impact of Hurricane Harvey and severe flooding in 2015. TDIS will house the critical flood risk data and information collected through this study.
Researchers are working closely with the Texas Division of Emergency Management and 17 other state and federal partners, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, among others, to ensure the portal will provide useful tools that are easy to access during a disaster.
TDIS will be powered by UT’s Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), which hosts one of the fastest supercomputers in the world. UT research scientists are creating the technical backbone of the system, while Texas A&M will contribute its unique knowledge about how to respond to and prepare for disasters, particularly flooding.
TDIS Team
The TDIS team, which also includes researchers from Rice University, Lamar University, and The University of Texas at San Antonio, will begin its work looking at issues related to flooding but will expand to address other hazards in the future, including hurricanes, fires and drought. One of its first outputs will be a statewide damage plain map that uses flood loss data provided by insurance companies to show areas at greatest flood risk, which will help homebuyers decide where to purchase property and assist city governments in deciding where to invest resources to protect against flooding.
Learn more about TDIS: https://youtu.be/GyEdueCHB3M
TDIS Demonstration: https://youtu.be/EvJCpCBJP6w