Project Goal
WaterView and the Flood Impact Assessment Tool (FIAT) were developed to serve as the National Water Center’s suite of hydrologic situational awareness applications used by forecasters within the National Weather Service. These applications were designed to allow forecasters the ability to both view and provide real-time data analysis and curation, in a collaborative way and on a national-scale. The overarching goal is to aid the forecasting process by providing an avenue for forecasters to gain informed hydrologic intelligence quickly and efficiently.Business Problem Solved
The development of WaterView and the Flood Impact Assessment Tool (FIAT) provided a location to host the approximately 400 hydrologic data service layers produced by the Office of Water Prediction. These applications provided a unique two-way solution in that National Weather Service forecasters are able to view, interrogate, and provide real-time analysis from a single website and also request support from subject matter exports from within the applications. Forecasters are also able to create data reports that are geo-located from the same interfaces. These reports evaluate forecasts and report observed impacts in a collaborative way across the multitude of National Weather Service offices. This capability has been paramount in the process for deploying real-time flood inundation mapping for the US, which will be completed later this year.
Technology Implemented
WaterView and the Flood Impact Assessment Tool (FIAT) are web applications built using Experience Builder and hosted on the NOAA GeoPlatform instance of ArcGIS Online. Both applications include extensive use of Arcade and hosted feature services via ArcGIS Online to collect, produce, and curate data in real-time. They contain numerous data services that are hosted in an ArcGIS Enterprise system that includes development, staging, and production environments. These data services are updated in real-time using scripted workflows.
Development Team Biography
Monica Stone is the lead developer and serves as GIS Lead for Operations at the National Water Center. Catherine Fitzpatrick served as a GIS Specialist and developer. Fernando Salas, Derek Giardino, Nick Chadwick, Carson Pruitt and a host of others lead the development of the geospatial data services which underpin WaterView and FIAT. Charlie Smith, Sean Ryan, and Peggy Lee led efforts to conceptualize workflows and provided deep input and review of WaterView and FIAT.