Visualization and communication in risk management of landslides

Our research integrates modeling, high performance computing, database management, visualization, and collaborative environments for hazard mitigation of landslides and debris flows at volcanoes. Our project has three main thrusts: (1) developing realistic simulations of landslides and other flows at volcanoes; (2) integrating data from several sources, including simulation results, remote sensing data, and GIS data, and (3) extracting, organizing and presenting information in a range of formats and fidelity, including audio, visual, and text, to a geographically distributed set of scientists and decision-makers involved in risk management. The basis of our simulation codes is a new data management scheme that facilitates storage of and access to massive data sets, as well as data obtained from simulations. Our simulation permits local mesh refinement, and thus includes support for locally refined analysis in areas of special interest. The organization of GIS data for the simulations is also facilitated by this structure. Because visualization is crucial for risk analysis of volcano hazards, data meta-structures of familiar features are extracted for detailed, off-line analysis. This visualization environment permits interactive navigation and manipulation of view, and includes a spectrum of visual details ranging from individual buildings to entire mountainside scenes. Users at geographically remote locations can interact, view simulation results, and discuss possible safety options in a distributed fashion on the web.