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Tracking trends in earthquakes and tropical storms: a web GIS application
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Tracking trends in earthquakes and tropical storms: a web GIS application
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Content
Tracking Trends in Earthquakes and Tropical Storms: A Web GIS Application
by
Julee Wardle
A Thesis Presented to the
Faculty of the USC Graduate School
University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science
(Geographic Information Science and Technology)
December 2019
Copyright © 2019 by Julee Wardle
To Charlie, you challenge (and spoil) me more than I could ever have imagined.
iv
Table of Contents
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi
List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... viii
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ ix
List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... x
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... xi
Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
1.1. Motivation ...........................................................................................................................2
1.2. Development Overview ......................................................................................................5
1.3. Thesis Organization ............................................................................................................7
Chapter 2 Related Work.................................................................................................................. 8
2.1. Earthquake and Tropical Storm Web Maps ........................................................................8
2.2. Earthquakes and Tropical Storms as Natural Disaster Data .............................................13
2.3. Web Application User Interface and User Experience .....................................................14
2.4. Web Map Services ............................................................................................................17
Chapter 3 Requirements ................................................................................................................ 20
3.1. Application Purpose ..........................................................................................................20
3.2. User Requirements ............................................................................................................20
3.3. Development Choices .......................................................................................................21
Chapter 4 Development ................................................................................................................ 23
4.1. Data Description ...............................................................................................................23
4.1.1. Earthquake Data Discussion ....................................................................................25
4.1.2. Tropical Storm Data Discussion ..............................................................................26
v
4.2. Application Development Phases .....................................................................................28
4.2.1. Data Phase ................................................................................................................28
4.2.2. Map Services Phase .................................................................................................29
4.2.3. Web Application Phase ............................................................................................31
Chapter 5 Results .......................................................................................................................... 37
Chapter 6 Application Assessment ............................................................................................... 43
6.1. Application Assessment Process.......................................................................................43
6.2. Evaluation Results ............................................................................................................43
6.3. Assessment Summary .......................................................................................................51
Chapter 7 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 52
7.1. Summary of Web Application ..........................................................................................52
7.2. Difficulties in Development ..............................................................................................52
7.3. Future Development..........................................................................................................53
References ..................................................................................................................................... 56
Appendix A – CRED EM-DAT Database License Agreement .................................................... 62
Appendix B – Web Mapping Application Survey Questions ....................................................... 68
vi
List of Figures
Figure 1. Dramatic devastation from 2017 Mexico 8.2 earthquake ............................................... 1
Figure 2. Cyclones Kilo, Ignacio and Jimena moving simultaneously across the Pacific in 2015 2
Figure 3. Total devastation in the 1906 San Francisco ~7.9 earthquake ........................................ 3
Figure 4. Photographer Shawn Clover’s “Fade to 1906” image blend showing then and now
images of the 1906 San Francisco ~7.9 earthquake ........................................................................ 4
Figure 5. Road damage from the 2016 Japanese 7.0 earthquake .................................................... 5
Figure 6. USGS Earthquake basic browser map application with minimal toolsets enabled ......... 9
Figure 7. NHC rudimentary embedded web map with minimal interactive mapping tools ......... 10
Figure 8. Screenshot of a multimedia video that shows EQs >8.0 Mag since 1900 ..................... 11
Figure 9. NOAA’s “Historical Hurricane Tracks” web mapping application with un-intuitive
interface......................................................................................................................................... 12
Figure 10. Parameters setting in map service publishing phase with maximum number of records
set to 5000. .................................................................................................................................... 29
Figure 11. Tropical Storms web map created on the USC SSI GIS Portal with time slider
enabled. ......................................................................................................................................... 30
Figure 12. Web map overview page showing Create Web App function with drop down options.
....................................................................................................................................................... 31
Figure 13. Web application interface with Theme, Map, Widget and Attribute options. ............ 32
Figure 14. Web application template gallery with Story Map Series option highlighted............. 33
Figure 15. Third tab with customized survey embedded in the application ................................. 34
Figure 16. Fourth "hidden" tab displaying survey results only visible to site administrator ........ 35
Figure 17. Error displayed when trying to embed USGS page to web application tab ................ 35
Figure 18. Earthquake web application with a main mapping window and infographic widgets
displayed. ...................................................................................................................................... 37
Figure 19. Web application with multiple tabs added and functional time slider. ....................... 38
Figure 20. Tropical storm application with charting widgets loaded simultaneously. ................. 39
vii
Figure 21. Additional earthquake science tab added as a result of UCD feedback. ..................... 40
Figure 22. Additional hurricane science tab added as a result of UCD feedback. ....................... 40
Figure 23.Web mapping application layout when viewed from a smartphone. ........................... 41
Figure 24. Survey question 1 responses ........................................................................................ 43
Figure 25. Survey question 2 responses ........................................................................................ 44
Figure 26. Survey question 3 responses ........................................................................................ 45
Figure 27. Survey question 4 responses ........................................................................................ 46
Figure 28. Survey question 5 responses ........................................................................................ 47
Figure 29. Survey question 6 responses ........................................................................................ 48
viii
List of Tables
Table 1. Final data sources used in primary data feeds for web mapping interface ..................... 24
ix
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to my thesis advisor, Dr. Bernstein, and my thesis committee members Dr. Sedano
and Dr. Ruddell for the time they spent giving me their direction. I am grateful for the data
provided to me by the United States Government, particularly USGS and NOAA – NHC and all
the patience afforded me by my colleagues throughout this process.
x
List of Abbreviations
API Application Programming Interface
CSV Comma Separated Values
CRED Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
EM-DAT Emergency Events Database
GIS Geographic information system
GUI Graphical User Interface
IRB Institutional Review Board
NHC National Hurricane Center
NOAA National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration
NWS National Weather Service
OGC Open Geospatial Consortium
REST Representational State Transfer
RWS RESTful Web Services
SQL Structured Query Language
SSI Spatial Sciences Institute
UCD User Centered Design
UI User Interface
USC University of Southern California
USGS United States Geologic Survey
UX User Experience
WFS Web Feature Service
WMS Web Map Service Interface Standard
xi
Abstract
Natural disaster events such as tropical storms and earthquakes have gained widespread attention
from the general public. While pictures provided by the media may tell a convincing story, data,
statistics, and maps provide the foundation for a more empirical approach to trend analysis. This
web GIS application provides users the ability to explore earthquake and tropical storm events
over the last 30 years and analyze trends in frequency and intensity of the events. The web
application consists of time-enabled maps and charts displaying global statistics in earthquake
and tropical storm frequency and intensity over the last 30 years. It is designed for members of
the general public who have a working knowledge of earthquake and hurricane science and an
interest in exploring whether there or not there are increasing trends in severe earthquake and
tropical storm events.
1
Chapter 1 Introduction
Images of catastrophic earthquakes and tropical storms across the globe have gained widespread
attention in the media. Mass media plays a pervasive role in captivating the audience by means
of a panic stimulus (Korstanje 2010). Mass media sensationalism is routinely seen during
disastrous events and is a type of journalistic bias in which events are over-hyped to increase
audience readership (Walters 2016). Terrifying pictures and dramatic headlines encourage shock
value within the general public who may be far removed from horror of the events as the 8.2
earthquake in Mexico during 2017 (Figure 1). But while images raise our awareness of the
struggles many across the world are facing, they also can imply that the disasters are growing
larger, more intense, and more devastating every year.
Figure 1. Dramatic devastation from 2017 Mexico 8.2 earthquake
2
Conclusions about precise trends cannot be drawn from images such as the line up of
three category 4 cyclones (hurricanes) in the Pacific Basin in 2015 (Figure 2). Catastrophic
events can be tracked using data science, such as quantitatively measuring the number of events,
size of events (with agreed upon measuring scales), and impact of said events. Organizing event
data into geospatial databases facilitates visualizing the numbers behind the events in an
accessible format, e.g, a web GIS application. A GIS application allows viewers to perform
analysis in an online environment and draw their own conclusions as to whether events such as
hurricanes and earthquakes have increased in size and frequency over the last thirty years.
1.1. Motivation
Extreme storm and earthquake events worldwide have gained attention from the general
public due to media reports showing the massive death and economic tolls over the years
(Korstanje 2010). Even last century there were powerful earthquakes in the news such as the
Figure 2. Cyclones Kilo, Ignacio and Jimena moving simultaneously across the
Pacific in 2015
3
1906 San Francisco 7.9 magnitude quake. The general public who did not experience the event
may have had trouble processing the hundreds of black and white images published in
newspapers and books such as the image of total devastation featured in Arnold Genthe’s “...As I
Remember” publication (Genthe 1936) of a series of photographs he took in the immediate
aftermath of the earthquake in 1906 (Figure 3). Most people rarely are aware of the actual trends
in earthquakes and tropical storms beyond the apocalyptic images they see.
There are numerous theories perpetuated by media reports, YouTube alarmists, and
conspiracy theorists that natural disasters such as earthquakes and tropical storms are growing
more intense and increasing in frequency. Conspiracy theories allow people to vent their
frustrations at their feelings of powerlessness, but they also provide a mixture of anxiety and
comfort in conceiving how power works (Sturken 2001). A cursory search on YouTube reveals
several channels dedicated to Earth inhabitants of doom. YouTube channels dedicated to “End of
the World” such as Jason A carry over one million subscribers and hosts videos viewed a
Figure 3. Total devastation in the 1906 San Francisco ~7.9 earthquake
4
staggering two million times (Jason 2019). Directed imagery searches result in powerful images
that range from the artistic then-and-now blends of the ~7.9 San Francisco 1906 earthquake
(Figure 4) to the 2016; 7.0 Earthquake in Japan with disintegrating highways (Figure 5). The
general public has few options to understand whether such events are continuing as they always
have, or if there is an actual upwards trend in frequency and intensity. With few ways to interact
with data in a user-friendly format, the general public is unable to determine trends for
themselves.
Figure 4. Photographer Shawn Clover’s “Fade to 1906” image blend
showing then and now images of the 1906 San Francisco ~7.9 earthquake
5
The website created for this thesis and the analytic tools it contains allow users to
investigate trends in large earthquakes and tropical storms, namely whether they have increased
in frequency and intensity in the last thirty years. Users do this by interacting with online maps
and charting widgets. The time sliders on the maps allow the user to determine spatial patterns in
events over time. The charting widgets have user controls that enable the user to zoom in to time
frames, looking for increasing or decreasing trends in frequency of the events over time. Users
can draw their own conclusions driven by data and spatial science rather than media alarmism
and dramatic images.
1.2. Development Overview
The project included several stages: data acquisition, curation, and display; map
development; and finally, web application development. It utilized earthquake and tropical storm
data sets from authoritative federal archives maintained in large data bases and freely available
for download to the public. It is important to note that while in federal hurricane databases the
terms tropical cyclone or tropical storm are often used interchangeably and include what are also
Figure 5. Road damage from the 2016 Japanese 7.0 earthquake
6
known as hurricanes and typhoons. All are the same weather phenomenon, but hurricanes
originate in the North Atlantic, central North Pacific and eastern North Pacific. Typhoons
originate in the western North Pacific. The generic term “tropical cyclone” is often used to refer
to a “rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or
subtropical waters and has closed, low-level circulation” (NOAA - National Ocean Service
2019). Once downloaded from federal archives, all datasets were curated to display category,
strength, and data/time fields in a way that the web application could easily interact with and
present to the user in easily understood categories The datasets were reduced to the essential
information through multiple attribute queries, enabling optimized web map services (also called
map services throughout this thesis) designed to cycle large data sets through web interfaces.
The web maps were symbolized map services that were temporally accurate and
optimized to display at several different scales and various thematic views in order to speed the
interaction time between server and user. They were grouped by theme to enable several
different views of natural disaster maps. They were shared with the public through the University
of Southern California (USC) Spatial Science Institute (SSI) ArcGIS Portal, enabling broad
access to the individual components feeding the web application. At the time of writing, the
website was currently available at
https://uscssi.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=c5294847fe2841f2972bf3468
4c06d9c.
The website has a User Interface (UI) designed to enhance User Experience (UX). It
consists of several time-enabled maps and charts displaying large data sets, curated to enable
web streaming, and showing frequency and intensity of the natural disaster events from the last
30 years. The intended audience was interested members of the general public who have a basic
7
knowledge of earthquake and hurricane science but who are unable to acquire, curate, query,
analyze and present the data in an easily accessible web GIS format for themselves.
1.3. Thesis Organization
This thesis is divided into six chapters along with lists of tables, figures, abbreviations
and references. The first of the six chapters is the introduction, which contains motivating factors
and a summary of the application design and subsequent process for data
acquisition/curation/display, web map and web application development. The second chapter
discusses related work broken into several categories: earthquake and tropical storm web maps,
earthquakes and tropical storms as natural disasters, web application user interface and user
experience, and web map services. The third chapter outlines the thesis requirements including
the application purpose, the user requirements, and the development choices. The fourth chapter
examines the development of the application including the data sources and the three main
application development phases: data, map services, and web interface. The fifth chapter reviews
the results of the application. The sixth chapter reviews the outcome of an application assessment
and user feedback through a survey of the web mapping application. The seventh chapter draws
conclusions on the success of the application, the limitations, and potential for further
development.
8
Chapter 2 Related Work
This chapter presents a literature review of this Tracking Trends in Earthquakes and Tropical
Storms Web GIS Application. There are numerous peer-reviewed articles and reports discussing
web maps, natural disaster data, user experience and web services. The chapter is divided into
four sections. Section 2.1 discusses web maps. Section 2.2 discusses earthquakes and tropical
storms as natural disaster data. Section 2.3 discusses the web application user interface and user
experience. Section 2.4 is an overview of web map services.
2.1. Earthquake and Tropical Storm Web Maps
The primary sources for data on earthquakes and tropical storms are the US government
offices of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), and the National Weather Service (NWS). The NWS has a division
focused entirely on predicting, analyzing, and warning the general public about hurricane activity
that affects the United States (and its territories) called the National Hurricane Center (NHC Data
in GIS Format n.d.). These organizations offer a plethora of data to download for use by the
general public and academia.
9
While both these government offices are world-renowned for maintaining robust and
authoritative datasets on historic events, they are limited in the visualization and analytic tool
options they provide. The USGS has a basic browser map application that allows the user to
view earthquake events based on user-driven queries (USGS n.d.), but does not have time-
enabled data streams or time-slider widgets available (Figure 6). USGS’ strength lies in its
capacity to provide large data downloads in multiple formats relying on others to analyze the
data and program custom visualization applications with enhanced UI/UX. The UI does not
allow for the user to adjust symbology for custom visualization needs nor is there any analytic,
graphing, or charting capacity. There are also limited export options for the mapping application
interface other than the user taking a screen shot of the map.
Figure 6. USGS Earthquake basic browser map application with minimal toolsets enabled
10
The NHC has an even more rudimentary web map embedded in their home page (NHC
n.d.). Its UI (Figure 7) is tailored to inform the viewer about current and predicted storms but
does not allow for loading custom queries from their archived datasets, nor does it have even
some of the basic mapping application tools that USGS has such as zoom-to-locations, zoom
in/out, scalebar, or legend. Much of what appears to be map applications on the NHC site are
merely embedded pdf thumbnails that, when clicked, launch a separate document discussing the
event rather than an actual web mapping application with a UI.
Figure 7. NHC rudimentary embedded web map with minimal interactive mapping tools
11
There are other earthquake and tropical storm-themed web maps and databases available.
The differences primarily revolve around the goals of the applications: some are simply
informative rather than interactive in nature, driving toward better understanding of trends as the
multimedia video embedded in a news article displayed (Figure 8) (Kuzoian, Animated map
2016). While it appears to be a map, it is merely a video that does not allow the user to interact
with the data or control the map. While it is useful for showing where earthquakes have occurred
at what time, there is no way to click on each event and further investigate the data. Some are
predictive, showing how future events could impact populations enabling mitigation efforts.
Others focus on assembling a variety of resources to alleviate humanitarian crises (Quakes Live
Earthquakes Map n.d.).
Figure 8. Screenshot of a multimedia video that shows EQs >8.0 Mag since 1900
12
Many web applications use open source tools or Esri’s proprietary formatting and tools.
Shared maps embedded in web pages with various user interfaces and tools are becoming more
and more popular as the tools become easier to use and implement. Despite the ease of use of the
web programming tools and the freely available datasets from both USGS and NOAA – NHC,
there is a noticeable lack of well-designed GIS web applications designed for users to explore
trends in natural disasters, combining earthquakes and hurricanes together in a flexible and
dynamic interface. The previously mentioned “web maps” were merely images or videos of a
map on a web page, they were not actual mapping applications that allowed the user to interact
with the map or data. NOAA does host a web mapping interface which allows users to explore
historic hurricane tracks (NOAA Office for Coastal Management 2018). It is very powerful,
however, the interface (Figure 9) is not intuitive for the average user. The application is designed
to support research on specific events, not necessarily view all the events over time. There is no
time slider widget available, and due to the large amount of data passed through the interface, the
user must insert a query to limit the data to a subset which can be confusing.
Figure 9. NOAA’s “Historical Hurricane Tracks” web mapping application with un-intuitive
interface
13
2.2. Earthquakes and Tropical Storms as Natural Disaster Data
Earthquakes and tropical storms, if strong enough to cause significant damage to life or
property, can be considered a natural disaster. One of the leading international natural disaster
data collections is hosted by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED)
at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. While initially their earthquake and tropical
storm data sets initially appeared to be valid as a primary data source for this project, after a
cursory comparison of the datasets to their respective USGS and NOAA datasets, there were
significant gaps in the completeness of the EM-DAT data. For example, USGS shows 11
earthquakes Magnitude 7.0-7.9 occurred in 1998. The EM-DAT database only had one 7.0-7.9
earthquake that year. There were also issues with completeness in the attribute fields. For
example, of their 1376 total earthquakes listed from 1900-2019, 253 had no magnitude recorded,
and 176 had no location (latitude, longitude) listed other than “possible country of origin”.
CRED sets specific criteria for what type of earthquake can be considered for inclusion in
the EM-DAT database (School of Public Health Université Catholique de Louvain n.d.). Per the
CRED supporting documentation, EM-DAT includes all disasters from 1900 until the present,
meeting the requirements of at least one of the following criteria:
• 10 or more people dead
• 100 or more people affected
• The declaration of a state of emergency
• A call for international assistance
These criteria significantly limit the total number of earthquakes that show an accurate
trend over time of decreasing or increasing total number of events. While the EM-DAT database
is significantly powerful, it exists to explore natural disasters from a public health standpoint,
14
rather than tracking an accurate number of earthquake (or tropical storm) events, regardless of
impact on surrounding population centers. Because of the limiting nature of the criteria, the
USGS and NOAA datasets provided a more reliable completeness for total number and
magnitude of the events than CRED’s EM-DAT data set.
One limitation of the CRED EM-DATA data set is the stringent database license
agreement (Appendix A – CRED EM-DAT Database License Agreement). Before accessing the
database, an account had to be established with detailed justification for why and how the data
would be used, and finally an agreement had to be signed stating that the user would follow the
database license agreement. There were several levels of authorized access allowed, called
“Limited Access”, “Extended Authorized Use”, and “Commercial Access” (School of Public
Health Université Catholique de Louvain n.d.). Very simply, once an account request was
approved, Limited Access authorized students and researchers to download only 8,000 records.
(Note, a cursory search of the database’s set of earthquake records to do a general comparison
with USGS earthquake records required downloading 1,376 records). Extended Authorized Use
allowed students and researchers to access the database for one year provided they pay a
significant fee. Commercial Access was approved only through separate, private agreements
with the University.
2.3. Web Application User Interface and User Experience
UI and UX are important concepts when designing a web mapping application. Several
key concepts to include, specifically in web mapping applications design, are strong cartographic
and spatial science principles, such as implementing map projections correctly and using
appropriate color schemes. While in-depth study of UI/UX principles can form the foundation
15
for entire academic programs for software engineers, there are six principles of usability for
basic user interface design: structure, simplicity, visibility, feedback, tolerance, and reuse
(Constantine 1999). Presented by Larry Constantine and Lucy Lockwood in their 1999 book
“Software for Use a Practical Guide to the Models and Methods of Usage-Centered Design”, the
six principles are applicable to a web mapping environment:
1. Structure Principle—Organize the user interface purposefully, in meaningful and
useful ways that put related objects together and separate unrelated objects based on
clear, consistent models that are apparent and recognizable to users.
2. Simplicity Principle—Make simple, common tasks simple to do, communicating
clearly in the user’s own language and providing shortcuts that are meaningfully related
to longer procedures.
3. Visibility Principle—Keep all needed tools and materials for a given task visible
without distracting the user with extraneous or redundant information: What You See Is
What You Need (WYSIWYN).
4. Feedback Principle—Through clear, concise, and unambiguous communication, keep
the user informed of actions or interpretations, changes of state or condition, and errors or
exceptions. These are relevant and of interest to the user in performing tasks.
5. Tolerance Principle—Be flexible and tolerant, reducing the cost of mistakes and
misuse by allowing undoing and redoing while also preventing errors wherever possible
by tolerating varied inputs and sequences and by interpreting all reasonable actions
reasonably.
16
6. Reuse Principle—Reduce the need for users to rethink, remember, and rediscover by
reusing internal and external components and behaviors, maintaining consistency with
purpose rather than merely arbitrary consistency.
One standard UX principle specifically in the web mapping arena that falls within
Usability Principle 6 is ensuring the user has rapid access to large datasets, particularly when
using background base map services. These tiled and cached map services, when premade (e.g.,
not rendered live) and stored on a server, then are cached client-side for reuse after the initial
network call. This significantly improves UX by not forcing the user to wait while each tile loads
repeatedly (a frustrating symptom of early-era web maps). Pre-rendering tiles in response to user
requests leverages web storage concepts to store objects in the background, thus providing a
much better UX in a web mapping environment (Freire 2014).
Taking the basic UI/UX principles one step further includes a concept called “User-
Centered Design” (UCD) referring to the concept of guaranteeing web application success by
acquiring user reactions throughout the design and development phases (Roth 2015). When
developers are implementing UCD, their principal focus should be on providing value to their
end users (Kramer 2000). Following UCD principles creates engaging, efficient user experiences
and seems surprisingly simple: Take the user into account throughout every development step.
However, the implications of this simple concept, can be surprisingly complex (Garrett 2010).
In order to ensure UCD principles are met in any web application, the application
designer must work through a series of user - utility - usability loops throughout design and
implementation. This enables the target users to provide input and feedback on needs and
designs (user), which prompts the developer to revise the concepts and functions of the interface
(utility), ultimately leading to new versions of the interface (usability) for additional evaluation
17
by target users (Roth 2015). UCD principles are often implemented using user-feedback forms,
whether embedded in the actual web application or set up as a side function, such as emailing the
development team or launching an informal chat function. Feedback does not have to be time-
consuming or expensive; it can be as simple as reading through server logs to understand the
user’s experience on the web application or set up unofficial testing sessions with friends or
colleagues (Garrett 2010). To fulfill UCD principles, the earthquake and tropical storm web
mapping application needed to enable visual exploration and both spatial and attribute analysis
of large, complex data sets, while remaining approachable and intuitive to non-technical target
user groups.
2.4. Web Map Services
Given the pivotal role of web map services to the overall web mapping application
design, it is important to understand a little of the history and overall background of web map
services. Since the 1980s, and particularly since the raise in popularity of Google Maps there is
an enormous amount of GIS data stored in geospatial databases. A method was required to pull
or share the spatial information over the internet. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an
international industry consortium of hundreds of companies, government agencies and
universities participating to develop publicly and freely available interface standards. In the late
1990s the OGC defined a set of standards for distributing geographic data with the intent of
making multiple layers of information quickly and easily available to Internet users (OGC 2019).
Originally accessing data was a cumbersome process but the OGC standardized process
allowed for the majority of the workload to be carried by the server rather than the user (Peterson
2012). The OGC established the web mapping service to have two primary functions: (1)
18
GetCapablites defines the server capabilities (such as map layers, method of display or file
formats) and (2) GetMap that tells the database what specifically is needed in the map request.
There are other functions frequently available like the GetLegendGraphic function (defines the
map symbols) or the GetFeatureInfo function which give more attribute information about the
feature in questions, such as a road name in the case of a road feature or an earthquake
magnitude in the case of an earthquake feature.
Web Map Services (WMS) and Keyhole Markup Language (KML) are the two most
widely implemented spatial data infrastructure standards (ISO, IHO, OGC 2018). WMS provides
access and display of geospatial information as a raster image. This very widely implemented
OGC/ISO standard provides access to hundreds of thousands of geospatial information layers
worldwide (ISO, IHO, OGC 2018) and is the primary choice for the map services published
during the application development for this thesis. KML is an XML language focused on
geographic visualization, including annotation of maps and images, originally designed as a
proprietary format by Google, but there is more work to be done on bringing the KML format
into harmony with the other OGC standards such as WMS and others (OGC 2019). As WMS is a
more established and mature standard than KML, it was a natural choice for the map services
created for both the earthquakes and tropical storms portions of the web map application and is
discussed further in the Development Choices section.
The Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural style is another common
service sharing format. When used to share spatial data it is called GIS RESTful Web Services.
(RWS) are particularly useful for web map applications as there is an associated API developed
specifically for REST and is heavily used by Esri Portal software. Rather than a basic XML
based service, REST emphasizes scalability of component interactions, independent deployment
19
of components, and importantly for map services, intermediary components to reduce latency
and enforce security (Fielding 2000). The advantages and disadvantages between using OGC
compliant map services (OGC 2019) such as WMS and WFS versus REST services are beyond
the scope of this document.
In building web map services, it is important to take symbology into careful
consideration. Data sets that are quantitative in nature should be displayed focusing on symbol
size and/or color lightness or saturation (Esri 2011). The eye intuitively sees larger and darker
symbols as a higher value. Hierarchical symbology principle states that symbols for a single,
quantitative variable (such as earthquake magnitude and tropical storm levels) should be sized
proportionally to match the data values as sized symbols are useful for presenting a better
understanding of the differences in magnitude (Campbell 2011). A large, dark red symbol
implies a higher magnitude than a small, light yellow symbol.
20
Chapter 3 Requirements
This chapter describes the requirements for the Tracking Trends in Earthquakes and Tropical
Storms Web GIS Application. Section 3.1 discusses the application’s purpose, Section 3.2
outlines the user requirements, and Section 3.3 explores the main choices involved in the
development process.
3.1. Application Purpose
The object of the application is to provide users the ability to explore earthquake and
tropical storm events from 1988-2018 and analyze trends in frequency and intensity of the
events. The web application should be accessible through a variety of devices, including desktop
and laptop computers, as well as tablet and smart-phone type mobile devices. The application
also needs to allow the user to view the earthquake and tropical storm events spatially on a map
and temporally with a time slider that cycles the events across the map by years. The application
should give the users the opportunity to determine increasing and decreasing trends in the
earthquake and tropical storm events throughout the thirty-year time frame.
3.2. User Requirements
The users of the web mapping application should be able to:
• Answer their spatial and temporal questions about trends in earthquake and
tropical storm events frequency and intensity in a GIS-enabled browser setting
• Access the application from any standard web browser, including Firefox,
Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, and Safari
• Access the application using a computer, tablet, or mobile device
21
• Interact with the application using tools that were once primarily available only to
GIS practitioners in specialized software
• Not need any specialized GIS software, skill or education to function
• Interact with a user-friendly interface with easy to find tools such as zoom, pan,
layer toggle, time slider and legend
By implementing these requirements, the users will be able to easily interact with the
tools should be presented in a simple, easy to use format for the general public, putting spatial
earthquake and hurricane events, in a browser- and device-agnostic format.
3.3. Development Choices
The application was developed using Esri’s desktop GIS software and the Esri online
cloud-based mapping and analysis solution called ArcGIS Online. ArcGIS Online was designed
to make maps, analyze data, and to share and collaborate in a fully online environment with no
need for desktop software (Esri n.d.). It provides the web application developer access to
templates and widgets for creating web applications that are customizable and shareable with
public or private audiences, based on sharing rules the developer implements throughout the
design process.
The platform on which the web mapping application is hosted is the USC SSI web GIS
portal currently available at https://uscssi.maps.arcgis.com and a web server suite maintained by
the USC SSI staff. The platform provides access to the front end of the web application (the user
interface) as well as the server that hosts the map services that feed the web mapping
application’s map interfaces. The map services are published from the USC SSI server using
ArcGIS Server software. ArcGIS Server provides geographic information available to anyone
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with an Internet connection through web mapping services. These map services allow a powerful
server to rapidly receive and process requests for the mapping information sent by user devices
alleviating the need for the (slower) processing on the user’s device (Esri 2019).
ArcGIS Server on the USC SSI server allows for publishing various geographic
information in a variety of OGC compliant map services including WMS Interface Standard and
Web Feature Service (WFS) formats. A very basic definition of OGC map services is an open-
web standard that provides a simple HTTP interface for requesting geo-registered map image or
data from one or more distributed geospatial databases (OGC 2019). That is, map services are a
common way to share georeferenced maps across the internet. The earthquake and tropical storm
web application relies on WMS map service format for the earthquake and tropical storm data
feeds that are visible in the web map interface.
The USC SSI web GIS portal based on the ArcGIS Online cloud-based mapping and
analysis solution provides a wide variety of map application templates from which to start the
web mapping application development process. The primary templates chosen for the earthquake
and tropical storm web mapping application were the tabbed story map and web application
dashboard templates.
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Chapter 4 Development
This chapter describes the development process in the earthquake and tropical storm web
mapping application. Section 4.1 describes the earthquake and tropical storm data used in the
application. Section 4.2 gives a high-level overview of the application design, including the
concept of nesting the web applications by building individual web applications for each of the
themes (earthquake and tropical storm) then nesting them within a larger application’s series of
tabs.
4.1. Data Description
The primary earthquake and storm data required to feed the map services, infographic
widgets, and web map application primarily came from two authoritative sources. The USGS
and NOAA-NWS are the primary authoritative sources for global data on earthquake and
hurricane/typhoons. They both maintain robust archives covering over the last hundred years.
Several cached map services provided through the ArcGIS portal were aesthetically pleasing
basemaps but did not contribute to the actual earthquake and tropical storm data and subsequent
trend analysis (Table 1). Because the time frame selected was static (30 years), the data was
pulled from archived databases at USGS and NOAA rather than pulling from USGS and
NOAA’s live data streams. This simplified development significantly by limiting the number of
events to a constant amount and allowed the map services to be optimized for that amount rather
than adjusting to live sequences of events and potentially facing server overload issues in the
future.
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Table 1. Final data sources used in primary data feeds for web mapping interface
DATA SOURCE CONTENTS PROJECTION PURPOSE SCALE
USGS –
https://earthquake.u
sgs.gov/earthquake
s/
Points displaying
earthquake events for
last 30 years,
describing magnitude,
lat/long, depth, impact,
place, type (earthquake
vs. non-earthquake),
time, significance,
associated tsunami
event, etc.
GCS_WGS84
(unprojected,
data provided in
raw latitude,
longitude)
The data feeds were
queried out various
ways based on
attributes to feed
both the earthquake
map interface and
the earthquake
themed chart
widgets
Global
NWS -
https://www.nhc.no
aa.gov/gis/
Various GIS data feeds
concerning hurricanes;
GIS REST links and
CSV data feeds with
live and historic
hurricane information
GCS_WGS84
(unprojected,
data provided in
raw latitude,
longitude)
The data feeds were
queried out various
ways based on
attributes to feed
both the tropical
storm map interface
and the tropical
storm themed chart
widgets
World-wide:
all basins
4.1.1. Earthquake Data Discussion
The earthquake data used for the map services and infographic widgets in the web map
application consist of historic (archived) data streams from USGS (USGS n.d.). The data had to
be queried down to just the “large” earthquakes (large defined for the purpose of this project as
6.0 magnitude on the Richter scale and larger).
The USGS datasets were available in several formats, including GeoJSON, Comma
Separated Values (CSV), GeoRSS, “QuakeML” (a type of XML), and KML (USGS n.d.). CSV
is convenient format to quickly move across servers and easiest to edit, since once downloaded,
the dataset had to be queried based on magnitude (Magnitude 6.x, 7.x, 8.x, and 9.x respectively)
25
and have columns added to separate the date/time stamps into specific years and decades for
symbolization; this step allowed for further analysis and charting and to simplify the infographic
creation process. It was easier to query against a custom-created date field to feed a simple graph
widget or map symbology than parse out the temporal information from a complex date/time
string every time. All these initial queries were performed using Microsoft Access and Structured
Query Language (SQL) and beginning with data in the CSV format allowed the data to be
imported and exported easily
4.1.2. Tropical Storm Data Discussion
NOAA hosts their tropical storm data several ways including REST services and zipped
CSV files (NOAA Office for Coastal Management 2018).
The NOAA-provided REST, WMS, and WFS map services were useful to quickly
determine global coverage, time scale and accompanying attribute information, but limit the user
to their published symbology and formatting. While WFS does allow for user download, it was
much slower to download data over a WFS feed than accessing the data through CSV format.
Downloading the raw CSV files and creating custom map services using ArcServer publishing
software provided a greater range of flexibility and control over the data and resulting maps and
graphics rather than being limited to OGC map services. NOAA provided the storm CSV files
divided several ways:
• By storm (each storm in a separate file)
• All storms (all storms in one file)
• Storms by basin (all storms for all years for an individual basin)
• Storms by year (all storms for a particular year in all basins)
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• Storms by hemisphere (all storms for an individual hemisphere)
The all storms file was ideal to query the data and symbolize the features in a way that best
suited the web map application overall UX/UI design. The hurricane tracks did not have line
geometry with one line per storm but were a series of points for every storm. This presented
more challenges in analyzing trends in frequency, duration, and intensity that required more
complex SQL queries for the infographic and charting widgets, as well as symbology and time
slider features.
The following queries helped to shrink the initial 220,552 event points down to just the
required events:
• All storms since 1980 (brought total number of storm event points down to
108,436 points)
• Nature category* set to 0,1,2 as Tropical, Subtropical, Extratropical (brought total
number of storm event points down to 77,885)
The metadata defined the first three nature categories (0, 1, and 2) as actual hurricane strength
storms with hurricane defined as anything that reaches >64 knots windspeed (~74 mph).
In order to begin initial speed tests on the map service (necessary due to the immense
volume of the feature classes) the symbology was tested two ways: by displaying the results
based on named storm in one layer and by basin in another feature. Each layer was time enabled
and time awareness turned on in the map document. This setting enabled the resulting map
service to carry the time awareness, thus enabling web map tools on the USC SSI enterprise
portal to recognize the time fields in the map service to drive the time slider widget.
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4.2. Application Development Phases
The web mapping application utilizes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and references the
ArcGIS JavaScript and REST APIs through the framework of ArcGIS Online web application
templates. It is hosted on the USC SSI enterprise portal using Esri’s Portal for ArcGIS software
and is fed by several OGC web maps, also hosted on the USC SSI enterprise server. The web
maps each contain at a minimum two map services: The Terrain with Labels basemap from
Esri’s basemap gallery, and either the earthquakes or tropical storm map services containing
several datasets broken out by magnitude (for earthquakes) or category (for tropical storms). The
map services are published from the USC SSI server (gis-server-02.usc.edu) using ArcServer
utilizing both the REST architecture and OGC standards. The application was developed in three
primary phases: data, map services, and web application.
4.2.1. Data Phase
The data phase involved acquiring, analyzing, and curating the authoritative earthquake
and tropical storm data. The data was downloaded from the respective sites (USGS and NOAA)
as CSV files, and eventually imported into ArcGIS Desktop using the ArcMap application.
Before the data could be read in ArcMap it was imported into Microsoft Excel as an intermediary
step simply to clean up the header information and column names, query the points to just the
1988-2018 time period, and separate the magnitude 7.x, 8.x, and 9.x earthquakes and category 3,
4, and 5 tropical storms.
Once the earthquake data sets were conditioned, they were exported into Microsoft Excel
worksheets, and imported into Esri’s ArcMap as X, Y Event Layers; finally, they were exported
into a file geodatabase as feature classes and added to the map to be symbolized. The map
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symbology was chosen based on standard cartographic principles focusing on size and color
saturation to show differences in magnitude and intensity. Once map symbology was ready, the
map was made time aware by enabling the time settings in each layer’s properties. The time
function was set to reference the appropriate attribute field in the data layers that contained the
date/time stamp. The symbolized and time aware maps were then published using ArcServer as
time aware map services.
Initially the Mag 5 and Mag 6 earthquakes for the last 100 years were planned to be
included. USGS would not allow a download of that many earthquakes at one time and produced
an error requiring the total number of events be limited. This problem reinforced the decision to
limit the overall study to only the last 7.x-9.x over the last 100 years. Thirty years of Mag 5 and
Mag 6 earthquakes was well over 50,000 earthquakes event points. The Esri Portal software
initially had difficulty pushing that volume through their charting and graphing widgets. To
resolve the issue for future iterations of the map services, the feeds would need to be broken
apart by decade or restricted another way so as not to overload any of the web map application
elements. The charting and infographic widgets are more light weight that the other widgets and
cannot handle that volume of data.
4.2.2. Map Services Phase
The map services phase consisted of turning the map documents into map services that
would be accessible on the internet. This was accomplished using the “share as map service”
command in the file menu in ArcMap. By using a publisher role login to the USC SSI ArcServer
instance, the maps were published as REST and WMS map services. This resulted in URLs that
29
could then be used in the USC SSI enterprise portal as a web map. The map services were time-
enabled and optimized to show a larger number of points at one time.
To show a larger number of points as one time a default setting in ArcServer had to be
changed. ArcServer normally only allows 2,000 features to be displayed by default. That was
resolved by increasing the display setting to the software’s help documentation highest
recommended setting of 5,000 features. Optimally, the map services can handle between 4,000
and 5,000 features at a time before the server displays sluggishness that could be noticed by a
user. The setting is accessed during the map service publishing steps. Once the “share as map
service” command in the file menu in ArcMap tool was initiated, a map service publishing
Graphical User Interface (GUI) opened with several options for changing default map service
settings. In the “Parameters” section, the setting was called “Maximum number of records
returned by the server” and was set to 5,000 as shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10. Parameters setting in map service publishing phase with maximum number of records
set to 5000.
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4.2.3. Web Application Phase
The web application phase involved designing an intuitive web application based on the
JavaScript API that incorporated the map services already published through USC SSI’s
ArcServer. This phase was broken down into two parts. First, individual web applications were
built using the web mapping application dashboard template on the USC SSI GIS portal.
Secondly the two individual web applications were nested in a web application built from the
tabbed Story Map template, also on the USC SSI GIS portal
4.2.3.1. Individual Web Applications
Creation of the individual web applications was accomplished by logging in to the USC
SSI GIS portal and creating two individual web maps with the respective earthquake and tropical
storm map services discussed previously that were created using ArcServer. The web maps
inherited the symbology, layers and initial global scale (that is, zoom level) from the map
services (Figure 11) Once each web map was saved in the GIS portal, their settings were set to
share with the public. This was a very important step to ensure the data and maps embedded in
the web application would be visible to the public, regardless of if they had an ArcGIS Online or
USC SSI portal account.
Figure 11. Tropical Storms web map created on the USC SSI GIS Portal with time slider.
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After creating the web maps, each were individually turned into their own respective web
applications. This was done from the web maps’ overview page by clicking “create web app”
and selecting “use the web app builder” option.
Figure 12. Web map overview page showing Create Web App function with drop down options.
The web app builder on the portal takes the developer through a series of GUIs that allow
for a wide variety of application settings to be established and customized. The four main steps
include “theme”, “map”, “widget” and “attribute” settings. In each tab the design of the web
application unfolds. For both the earthquake and tropical storm web applications, the theme was
set to “foldable” as that layout provided most basic tools already enabled. The map settings were
set to inherit the initial extent and visible scales from the web map. Once all the settings were
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saved for both the earthquake and tropical storm web applications, they were ready for the final
step in the web application development phase.
4.2.3.2. Expanded nested design to enhance User Experience
The two web applications were nested together in a tabbed story map so that the users
could access both application from one location. This was done by browsing to the “content”
page of the portal and selecting “create using the web app builder” option. This step launched a
GUI describing numerous templates from which to begin application development. By selecting
the “Story Map Series” the two earthquake and tropical storm pre-built web applications could
Figure 13. Web application interface with Theme, Map, Widget and Attribute options.
33
be nested together in a tabbed application (Figure 14). By working through the GUI, both web
applications were added to their respective tabs.
Figure 14. Web application template gallery with Story Map Series option highlighted.
Another element of design was a survey tab that enabled a small group of in-house
industry professionals to provide immediate feedback on the web application. The tab contained
an embedded page from SurveyMonkey.com with a specialized survey designed specifically for
this web mapping application (Figure 15). The survey provided immediate feedback on the user
interface and any issues the survey participants faced in real time. Given that those surveyed
were a small group of industry professionals, USC’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval
was not required. If the survey were turned into a long-term feature of the website, IRB approval
34
would be pursued.
Figure 15. Third tab with customized survey embedded in the application
Another feature included in the application design was a hidden tab, visible only to the
site administrator. This tab provided the survey results in real time (Figure 16). This tab allowed
the administrator to view the survey submissions on the fly. The survey results are discussed
further below in Chapter 6. The survey results allowed for UCD principles to quickly implement
user – feedback. For example, at one point a participant requested more information about
earthquake and hurricane science and proposed that the USGS and NOAA websites could
provide that. Two more tabs were then quickly added to the web mapping application with links
35
to specific USGS and NOAA pages. Unfortunately, both USGS and NOAA web sites blocked
the ability to load their actual pages in an iFrame and initially threw an error (Figure 17).
The problem was easily overcome by typing text in body of the tab directing the user to
“Click here for more information on....”, then right clicking on the text, clicking “add hyperlink”
and pasting the USGS and NOAA page urls into the add hyperlink box.
Figure 16. Fourth "hidden" tab displaying survey results only visible to site administrator
Figure 17. Error displayed when trying to embed USGS page to web application tab
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Chapter 5 Results
This chapter explores the results of the web application development designed to provide users
the ability to explore earthquake and tropical storm events and analyze trends in frequency and
intensity. It outlines the individual web applications and the nested web applications into the
tabbed story map series.
The web application consists of two separate individual web applications each focused on
earthquakes and tropical storms, respectively. They both contain time-enabled maps along with
accompanying charts displaying the global statistics in earthquake and storm frequency and
intensity for the 1988-2018 time period. Each of the individual web mapping applications allow
the user to visualize the data, create custom maps by toggling on and off data feeds, share
resulting maps, charts, and infographics, and link to informational sites and data sources for
further research.
Each individual web application was designed with a main mapping window in the right
of the frame (Figure 18). They contain user controls on the top left of the map such as zoom
in/out buttons, a home button (to return map to initial display/zoom), a time slider widget, a USC
SSI title and logo that launches a link to the USC SSI academic program site, a basemap
selection widget, a layer widget, and a legend widget. The map frame also contains a scale bar,
and a full screen toggle button on the bottom left and right sides of the map, respectively. The
time slider widget is on by default, displaying a continuous cycle of the data feeds in 2-year
increments, starting with 1989 and ending in 2019. All these widgets were enabled by working
through the template’s tabbed GUI and choosing each widget to display and applying various
settings for layout, color and other variables. Some of those variables enable users to click on
37
each earthquake event in the mapping window to launch an information popup window. The
window displays attribute information and allows the user to zoom to the event or display the
event in the attribute table at the bottom of the application. Users are also able to pan and scroll
within the map window to control the map display.
Figure 18. Earthquake web application with a main mapping window and infographic widgets
displayed.
In addition to the above settings implemented, on the bottom of the web application is a
small up arrow tab that launches an attribute table widget. The widget displays tabs for each
layer in the map services currently displayed in the map window. It allows the user to select
earthquake or hurricane events, ranges of events, or geographically related events. There is a
zoom-to-selected button, clear selection button, refresh button, and filter by map extent button.
The widget also has several options for the user to manipulate and show selected records, hide
selected records, filter, and show/hide columns.
On the left side of the web application, there are several charting widgets depicting the
earthquake data feeds in different ways. The first chart is called, “Average Magnitude by
Decade”, and takes all the earthquake data feeds and averages out the magnitude by every ten
years. There is a note at the bottom of each of the graphics giving the user pertinent information
38
about each graph. The successive graphs are called “Total Mag 7 EQs by Decade”, “Total Mag 8
EQs by Decade”, and “Total Mag 9 EQs by Decade”, respectively.
All the chart widgets have a slider bar, allowing the user to zoom in to parts of the
timeline. The bar stretches or compresses the graph as desired by the user to investigate smaller
or larger time frames. The user is also able hover their mouse over the charts and click to pan or
use the scroll wheel to manipulate the graph display.
Lastly, all the chart widgets and the main map frame have a maximize button to allow the
user to enlarge that portion of the web application and interact with it alone in the browser
window. To return to the initial web application, the user can click the minimize button. This is a
useful feature if the user has multiple screens and wants to view the map or infographic on a
larger screen and enable them to save a screenshot to view later or print the larger version of the
map or graphic if needed.
The first tab calls the initial earthquake interface discussed above. The second tab
displays the similarly designed second interface devoted to the tropical storms data
encompassing the last thirty years with time slider enabled (Figure 19).
Figure 19. Web application with multiple tabs added and functional time slider.
39
This tab contains the full web map interface designed for tropical storms as described in
Section 4.2.3.1. It includes the entire map and same suite of map tools including the time slider,
basemap gallery, layer list, measurement tool, zoom in/out, attribute table popup, and
latitude/longitude hover tool. It also contains three charting widgets that either load on the right
side of the map one by one, with a slider option, or load all three at once on the left side of the
page, depending on the screen size of the user’s device (Figure 20). The three charting widgets
are called “Number of Cat 5 by Year”, “Number of Cat 4 by Year”, and “Number of Cat 3 by
Year”, respectively and each graph reflects the color of their respective map symbols (red for
category 5, yellow for category 4, green for category 3). While this had to be done manually, it
provided a visual connect for the user to quickly understand which data set the graphs were
referencing.
Figure 20. Tropical storm application with charting widgets loaded simultaneously.
40
In order to allow the users access to more earthquake and tropical storm information, two
more tabs were made available linking the user to NOAA’s National Ocean Service which
discusses hurricane science, hurricane prediction and hurricane preparedness (Figure 22) and
USGS’ Earthquakes Hazards program page and which discusses the science behind earthquake
events, shows earthquake animations, and has background information on well-known
earthquake events throughout history (Figure 21).
One last feature included in the web mapping application’s design is for the interface to
automatically adjust based on what type of device the user uses while visiting the application.
Figure 22. Additional hurricane science tab added as a result of UCD feedback.
Figure 21. Additional earthquake science tab added as a result of UCD feedback.
41
While the interface was originally designed for a larger computer screen (laptop or desktop style
screens), it does technically work on smart phones and tablets (Figure 23). It is touch screen
enabled so that users merely need to swipe across the bottom to switch between what appears as
tabs in a larger computer screen. Users can drag the map to pan, pinch to zoom in/out, and touch
a drop down a menu to enable the other mapping tools.
The web mapping application meets the initial application purpose of giving users the
opportunity to determine increasing and decreasing trends in the earthquake and tropical storm
events throughout the thirty-year time frame. It is accessible through a variety of devices,
including desktop and laptop computers, as well as tablet and smart-phone type mobile devices.
It also allows the user to view the earthquake and tropical storm events spatially on a map and
temporally with a time slider that cycles the events across the map by years.
Figure 23.Web mapping application layout when viewed from a smartphone.
42
Chapter 6 Application Assessment
This chapter discusses the application assessment process, disclosing participants in the survey
and how they were contacted, evaluation of the results with some discussion regarding the
potential reasons for some of the responses, and finally, a summary of the overall assessment.
6.1. Application Assessment Process
Ten industry professionals were invited to participate in the survey process based on their
professional associations and previous experience with web mapping interfaces. None of the
assessors had any knowledge of the Earthquake and Tropical Storm application or were involved
in any way with the development process. The week of July 1st, 2019 the participants were
contacted in person and requested to survey the web application. They were provided
instructions on accessing the website, and details on the background of the website. Eight of the
ten professionals responded by July 13th with their survey responses. The survey tab was then
removed from the web map application.
The survey was designed using SurveyMonkey.com and embedded into the actual web
mapping application as a separate tab. In order to ensure the survey questions were appropriate
for the web mapping application, SurveyMonkey’s web application survey template was used,
focusing on eight of the top recommended questions. Several questions had to be reworded
slightly to reflect the web mapping application theme but did not alter the questions’ intent.
6.2. Evaluation Results
The eight survey questions are available in Appendix B – Web Mapping Application
Survey Questions. The first question, “How likely is it that you would recommend this web
43
mapping application to a colleague?” had interesting results. The question was designed to be
answered on a scale of 0 – 10, with zero being “Not at all likely”, and 10 being “Extremely
likely”. Half of the respondents (4 of the 8) fell within what SurveyMonkey labeled “Promotors”,
that is, those that scored the question either a 9 or a 10. The other half (4 of 8) scored what
SurveyMonkey labeled as “Passives”, that is a score of 7-8. There were zero respondents in the
“Detractors” category encompassing a score of 0 – 6 ( Figure 24 )
Figure 24. Survey question 1 responses
The second question, “How satisfied are you with the reliability of this web mapping
application?” was answered by all eight respondents ( Figure 25 ). Their answers ranged from a
“somewhat satisfied” (1 respondent) to “very satisfied” (4 respondents) and “extremely satisfied”
44
(3 respondents). Upon looking further at the respondent that answered “somewhat satisfied”,
their open ended response to Question 8 “Do you have any other comments, questions, or
concerns?” was “charts were a little slow to load on my work computer...might have been a work
network thing?”. Their slow work network could have had some impact on their answer to
Question 2. Upon verbal trouble shooting with this respondent, it was discovered that his work
IT department slows their access to the internet over the lunch hour to discourage audio and
video streaming of non-work-related subjects. When the respondent re-accessed the website from
his work computer later in the day and from his home office, he had no difficulties with access or
load times for any portion of the website.
Figure 25. Survey question 2 responses
45
The third question, “How satisfied are you with the look and feel of this web mapping
application?” was answered by all eight respondents ( Figure 26 ). Half (4 of the 8) responded
with a “Very Satisfied” and the other half responded with an “Extremely Satisfied.
Figure 26. Survey question 3 responses
The fourth survey question “How often does the web mapping application freeze or
crash?” was also answered by all the respondents ( Figure 27 ). Two of the respondents chose
“Not so often”, while six chose “Not often at all”. Of the two who chose “not so often” , one did
not fill out the open-ended questions (# 7 and 8) at all, but the other respondent did have a
46
comment in Question #7 (“Do you have any thoughts on how to improve this software?”). He or
she stated, “I am thinking it may have been a network problem, but I had to manually turn on the
layers.” It is possible that their network slowness could have impacted their choice for Question
#4. Given that no respondents had “somewhat often”, “very often” or “extremely often” as their
response to Question #4, the initial data curation and map service optimization namely using
SQL queries to limit the data feeds to only what was required for the web maps) was successful
in preventing sluggish map service loads.
Figure 27. Survey question 4 responses
The fifth question “How user-friendly is the web mapping application's interface?” was
also answered by all eight respondents (Figure 28). This question had two “Very user-friendly”
47
and five “Extremely user-friendly” responses. The only concerning result was the one
“Somewhat user-friendly” response. Upon further research, it was the same respondent who
stated, “I am thinking it may have been a network problem, but I had to manually turn on the
layers.”
Figure 28. Survey question 5 responses
The sixth question “How successful is the web mapping application in conveying trends
in the data?” was also answered by all the respondents (Figure 29). This question was answered
positively by all the respondents with five choosing “Very successful” and three choosing
48
“Extremely successful” as their answers.
Figure 29. Survey question 6 responses
Lastly, the two open ended questions, Questions 7 and 8, “Do you have any thoughts on
how to improve this software?” and “Do you have any other comments, questions, or concerns?”
respectively were both answered by only six of the respondents (two respondents did not give
any response to either Question 7 or Question 8). Question 7 was answered with the following
six responses:
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• It would be nice to have links to more information on hurricanes and
earthquakes...USGS or NOAA maybe have good sites to link to?
• I would have like to see more earthquake magnitudes besides the 7s, 8s, and 9s. 5s
and 6s would have been nice as well, though prob way too much data for the feeds to
handle.
• I'd like to see more tabs with other data sets like tsunamis/floods/landslides etc.
• None. Looks beautiful!!!!
• I am thinking it may have been a network problem, but I had to manually turn on the
layers.
• N/A
The first response of “It would be nice to have links to more information on hurricanes
and earthquakes.... USGS of NOAA maybe have good sites to link to?” is a good example of a
UCD feedback loop. Given that this response occurred just before the end of website
development this suggestion was incorporated by adding two more tabs into the web mapping
application with links to USGS and NOAA informative pages on Earthquake Science and
Tropical Storm Science, respectively.
Question 8 responses had more positive feedback and had fewer suggestions:
• I used Explorer to open the webpage and everything looked wonderful.
• The web page looks great.
• Great site; look forward to using it more.
• great interface.... loved the time slider feature and the graph colors matching the map
symbol colors.
50
• charts were a little slow to load on my work computer...might have been a work network
thing?
• N/A
6.3. Assessment Summary
Overall, the survey was successful in doing what it was intended. Interestingly, some
respondents, regardless of their interest, simply were not interested in writing out more detailed
feedback in the open-ended questions. Primarily, the issues that a few respondents seemed to run
into were not specifically reflective of poor design, data management, or map service
optimization, but merely (according to their assessment) sluggishness on their own work network
access. While troubleshooting their unique work networks’ capacity, firewalls, security
infrastructure is beyond the scope of this thesis, it is something to consider in future development
on this or other web mapping interfaces. While all network protocols are impossible to plan for,
in the future, the UCD feedback loop should include more scheduled time for trouble-shooting
unique network bottlenecks in order to mitigate some of the slowness for users with slow
network access.
51
Chapter 7 Conclusion
This chapter discusses the overall web application, summarizing the design, disclosing some of
the difficulties encountered during development, limitations in the source data and application,
and ends with potential areas for future development and improvements.
7.1. Summary of Web Application
The web application was designed using a nested concept. The initial data sets from
USGS and NOAA were fed to web maps using OGC map services published using Esri’s
ArcServer software. The map services were fed to themed web maps on USC SSI web GIS
portal located at https://uscssi.maps.arcgis.com.
Those web maps were then used as the basis for web map applications that were
combined with charting widgets to display trends of the individual data sets across time. The
final nesting occurred by feeding the two individual web map applications (earthquakes and
tropical storms) into a tabbed story map that enables the user to toggle between the different web
map applications and link to more earthquake and tropical storms information for further
research.
7.2. Difficulties in Development
There were few difficulties encountered throughout the development process. Initially,
the first issue was making the data look and behave the way it should before attempting to
publish as a map service. That meant fixing attribute field names and querying very large
datasets down to a manageable size in order to optimize the map service interaction speeds. Once
52
the most efficient queries were determined to subset the data, there were not many issues with
publishing the map services or building the web maps.
The next difficulty came with designing the charting widgets to accurately display the
trends in the data over time. The chart widget templates did not interact well with the map
services, so after much testing, the datasets had to be loaded to the web application as extra data
sources. This enabled the chart widgets to “see” the data and interact with them more efficiently.
The only other difficulty came with fully understanding how to nest the different
elements of the design. Once it became clear that it was possible to embed web maps into web
applications and then embed multiple web applications into a tabbed story map, there were no
further major issues with the actual design or development.
7.3. Future Development
In order to turn the web mapping application into a long-term hosted web site several
events would need to occur. First, arrangements would need to be made with the USC SSI
program to continue hosting the data and map services on their server or recreate them on a
private web server that has Esri’s ArcServer software installed. The actual web applications and
tabbed story map application would have to be moved to a private portal account on arcgis.com,
as only USC students are allowed access to those accounts.
A few future developments would improve the website design. The primary improvement
would be to turn the earthquake and tropical storm map services into live services that are
updated in real-time as earthquake or tropical storm events occur. As it is now, the map services
must be manually updated with data downloaded from the USGS and NOAA websites. With live
updated map services, to the charting widgets and SQL queries would have to be redesigned. As
53
live data feeds were beyond the extent of the initial web application design, the queries or chart
widgets were not designed to account for changes in dates, e.g. starting and ending dates change
when “today’s date” changes every day. “Today” introduces a level of complexity in SQL and
charting that is outside the scope of this thesis.
Another thing to consider in future development is the users’ individual network issues.
Some users may be accessing the web application from a disadvantaged network, as slow
network connections still exist in many parts of the world, as well as the fact that some network
providers or employers intentionally throttle back network speeds or streaming capabilities
during high traffic periods like the lunch hour. While a web application developer cannot control
network provider choices, there could be potential to develop a “lite” version of the application
where a user could be presented with an option to launch a different version of the web
application when they experience slow network speeds.
Lastly, the full web mapping application could be improved with other natural disaster
data sets beyond the initial earthquake and tropical storm data sets. Some of the survey
participants asked about tsunamis, floods, landslides, and fires and if they could easily be added
to the application. If the data were readily available and curated into easy to publish map
services, the rest of the design could go smoothly. The difficulty lies in acquiring and curating
those types of datasets, particularly on a global scale. For the purposes of this thesis, the
workload to acquire, curate, manage, and publish that volume of data would be daunting.
Overall, this project served to provide users the ability to explore earthquake and tropical
storm events over the last 30 years and analyze trends in frequency and intensity of the events.
Members of the general public can now determine for themselves whether earthquakes and
tropical storms are increasing in frequency and intensity. By providing reliable data, statistics,
54
maps and online tools, users have a more empirical approach to trend analysis in earthquakes and
tropical storms other than dramatic headlines and pictures in the news.
55
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61
Appendix A – CRED EM-DAT Database License Agreement
From: https://www.emdat.be/emdat_db/
DATABASE LICENSE AGREEMENT
(UCL2019)
This Database License Agreement (the Agreement) is made between yourself ( the Licensee ) and
Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), a Belgian University with its registered office
located Place de l'Université, 1, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, acting through its Research
Group “Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters” or CRED ( the Licensor ).
WHEREAS Licensor has developed the EM-DAT database (hereinafter the “Database”) made
available on the internet for Authorized Use on the one hand and, upon payment of a fee, for
Extended Authorized and commercial uses on the other hand;
WHEREAS the Database aims at providing an objective basis for vulnerability assessment and
rational decision-making in disaster situations, by collecting, organizing and giving access to
validated data on the human impact of disasters (such as the number of people killed, injured or
affected), and the disaster-related economic damage estimates;
Licensor wishes to lay down the conditions enabling Licensee to use said Database.
ARTICLE 1: OWNERSHIP OF THE DATABASE
Licensor guarantees to be the owner of all intellectual property rights related to the Database,
including all copyrights and determines the content of the Database. Licensor shall at all times,
have the right, without any prior notice or motivation, to –amongst other decisions-: (i) modify the
data disclosed, (ii) disclose other data, (iii) suspend the availability of the Database for
maintenance or any other purposes, (iv) decide to cease making available such Database. Licensor
shall notify Licensee of any amendment that might have a consequence on the access rights of
Licensee by email at the Licensee’s email address.
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2.1. Subject to the terms set forth in this Agreement, Licensor agrees to make available to the
Licensee the data contained in the Database:
• free of charge for Authorized Use, as detailed in article 2.3 of this Agreement;
• upon payment fee for Extended Authorized Use, as detailed in article 2.4. of this
Agreement
• upon payment fee for Commercial Use, as detailed in article 2.5. of this Agreement.
62
Licensee acknowledges that, except for the use rights granted in article 2 of this Agreement, no
intellectual or any other proprietary rights are transferred or assigned through the Agreement. All
intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyrights, trademark rights and database
rights, used or embodied in or in connection with the Database are and remain entirely with the
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2.2. Access to the Database. Upon completion of the registration information on www.emdat.be
and acceptation of the present Database License Agreement, Licensor shall provide Licensee with
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Database for Extended Authorized Use, for a duration of one (1) year counting as from the date
of acceptance of the present Agreement. Extended Authorized Use refers to using and accessing
the Database, searching within the Database, viewing the search results displayed in an excel sheet
or csv file, downloading the search results files (texts, images or else) and printing these search
results for research, teaching or information purposes, excluding, without limitations, any
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organisations and students assessing more than 8000 data contained in the Database and for
international organisations and private companies accessing more than 1000 data contained in the
Database). Licensee shall be invoiced for such Extended Authorized Use in conformity with article
4 of this Agreement.
2.5. Commercial Use. In case the Licensee needs a Commercial Use license on the Database,
Licensee shall send a prior written request to Ms. Regina BELOW, EMDAT data manager –
regina.below@uclouvain.be . (hereinafter “the Database Manager”) describing the aim of such
Commercial Use and the amount of users needing access to such data subject to article 7.1. Upon
the Database Manager’s sole discretion to consent to such project, which shall not be unreasonably
withheld, the terms and conditions of the present Agreement relating to such Commercial Use and
more precisely article 4 of this Agreement shall apply.
63
Parties agree that shall be considered Commercial Use , all use of the Database for a commercial
interest rather than a public, not for profit, or educational interest and may include a corporation,
partnership, limited liability company, law firm or other business, organization, that wishes to
access the Database. Commercial interest means the sale, lease, license or other transfer of the
Database to a for-profit organisation or the use of the Database to perform contract research, to
produce or to manufacture products for sale purposes, or to conduct research activities that result
in any sale, lease, license or transfer of the Database to any organisation. It is understood by the
Licensee that the Unauthorized use as defined in article 2.6. of this Agreement shall not be
considered to be included in the Commercial Use.
2.6. Unauthorized use. Licensee undertakes not to:
• Reproduce, copy, communicate, lend, or otherwise distribute a substantial part of the
Database or in whole;
• Make a direct commercial use of the Database, such as selling, renting or leasing a
substantial part of the Database or in whole
• Reverse assemble, de-compile, de-compose, or disassemble the Database;
• Create substitute or derivative databases of the Database;
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• Share, use and/or transmit any portion of the Database via the Internet to unauthorized
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• Divulge the password to unauthorized users that have not agreed to the Database License
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• Remove, alter or obscure any proprietary legend, copyright, trademark or other intellectual
property right notice, logo and image in or on the Database; or
• database via the Internet to unauthorized users;
• Divulge the password to unauthorized users that have not agreed to the Database License
Agreement;
• Remove, alter or obscure any proprietary legend, copyright, trademark or other intellectual
property right notice, logo and image in or on the Database; or
• Perform acts that conflict with the normal exploit
Perform acts that conflict with the normal exploitation of the Database or unreasonably prejudice
the interest of Licensor;
ARTICLE 3: PERSONAL DATA
Licensee agrees that certain personal data may be collected and processed via our site, for example
through the registration form to be completed, in order to provide access to the Database. The
collected personal data shall be used exclusively for the purpose indicated above. Licensor
undertakes to process such data in accordance with the Belgian Law of 8 December 1992 on the
protection of privacy in relation to the processing of personal data, as amended and the General
Data Protection Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of April 27, 2016 of the European
Parliament and the Council Concerning the protection of individuals with regard to the processing
of personal data and the free movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46 / EC (General
64
Data Protection Regulation) The legal texts can be consulted on the website of the Commission
for the Protection of Privacy ( http://www.privacy.fgov.be/ ).
The data collected is neither transferred nor transmitted to any other organization. However,
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authority in accordance with the laws and regulations in force.
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equal to the amount of:
• 600,00€ (TVA not included) for academic, universities and non-profit research institutions
• 6.000,00€ (TVA not included) for international organisations (UN agencies, multi-lateral
banks and institutions and national government) and private firms, consultancies
companies and other profit organizations
The financial considerations for a Commercial Use shall be agreed upon in a separate agreement.
The Database shall be available upon proof of payment of the corresponding fee.
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do not constitute any form of advice, recommendation, representation or endorsement. Licensor
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circumstances.
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based on the data made available through the Database. The entire risk arising out of the use of the
Database remains with the Licensee. Under no circumstances, including claims of negligence, shall
Licensor be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of
business profits, interruption of business activity, loss of business information, or other monetary
loss) arising out of the use or inability to use the Database. More in particular since use of and
access to the Database depends, in part, on third parties (e.g. telecommunications carriers) whose
performance is outside Licensor’s control, Licensor disclaims all liability for damages arising from
the failure of the transmission or receipt of data.
The entire risk arising out of the possible reproduction and distribution of the Database remains
with the Licensee.
65
ARICLE 6: CITATION
Licensee agrees to use Proper Citation of the Database in all public use of the Database or its data.
All published papers and technical reports from the Licensor related to the Database may be used
free of charge by the Licensee, provided the Licensee uses Proper Citation. Proper Citation of both
the Database and data obtained through the Database is the responsibility of the Licensee alone. “
Proper Citation ” of the Database means: “EM-DAT, CRED / UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium –
www.emdat.be (D. Guha-Sapir)”
ARTICLE 7: DURATION OF THE AGREEMENT
7.1. Term. This Agreement shall become effective as of the moment Licensee agrees to it by
clicking on the “I agree’ button (hereinafter “the Effective Date”) and shall continue in full force
and effect:
• For Authorized Use: for an indefinite term until reaching the granted Limited Access
counting as from the Effective Date.
• For Extended Authorized Use and Commercial Use: for a definite term of one year
counting as from the Effective Date.
7.2. Termination. The Agreement shall automatically terminate at its termination date.
The Agreement shall automatically terminate, without any compensation due, in case Licensor
does no longer provide access to the Database or ceases its activities. Licensor shall notify the
Licensee of such termination with no undue delay at the Licensee’s email address.
Without prejudice to the rights and remedies Licensor may have under this Agreement or at law,
in particular to claim compensation for damages incurred, Licensor shall have the right to terminate
immediately and without any prior notification the Agreement in case of breach of use by Licensee.
In such case, Licensee shall have no longer access to the Database and shall be notified hereof at
the moment of first login after termination.
7.3. Consequences of termination. Upon termination of this Agreement, Licensee will cease and
desist from all use of the Database and will uninstall, remove and destroy all copies of the Database
in Licensee’s possession or control, including any modified or merged portions thereof, in any
form, and execute and deliver evidence of such actions to the Licensor. Licensee shall remain
bound by those provisions of the Agreement which by their terms extend beyond the date of
termination.
ARTICLE 8: MISCELLANEOUS
8.1. Assignment. Neither this Agreement nor any of Licensee's rights hereunder shall be assigned,
sublicensed or transferred (in insolvency proceedings, by mergers, acquisitions or otherwise) by
Licensee without the previous written consent of the Licensor. Any assignment or other transfer
which is inconsistent with the foregoing shall be null and void ab initio.
66
8.2. Entire Agreement. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with
respect to the subject matter of this Agreement and supersedes all previous agreements,
arrangements or undertakings between Licensor and Licensee relating to its subject matter and any
representations or warranties previously given or made to it, if any.
8.3. Failure or neglect of the Licensor to enforce any provision of this Agreement at any time
shall not be construed or deemed to be a waiver of its rights and shall not in any way affect the
validity of this Agreement or any of its provisions nor prejudice the Licensor‘s right to take
subsequent action.
8.4. In the event that any provision of this Agreement is deemed by any competent authority having
jurisdiction to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, that provision shall to that extent
only be severed from the remaining provisions which shall continue to be valid.
8.5. Jurisdiction venue. In the event of any dispute arising out of or in connection with the subject
matter of this Agreement, the Parties shall first endeavor to resolve such dispute amicably within
thirty (30) days after the date of the notification by one Party of such dispute to the other Party.
Should the Parties fail to do so, then such dispute shall be subject to Belgian law except its conflicts
of law rules and the competent courts of Brussels.
67
Appendix B – Web Mapping Application Survey Questions
68
69
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
Natural disaster events such as tropical storms and earthquakes have gained widespread attention from the general public. While pictures provided by the media may tell a convincing story, data, statistics, and maps provide the foundation for a more empirical approach to trend analysis. This web GIS application provides users the ability to explore earthquake and tropical storm events over the last 30 years and analyze trends in frequency and intensity of the events. The web application consists of time-enabled maps and charts displaying global statistics in earthquake and tropical storm frequency and intensity over the last 30 years. It is designed for members of the general public who have a working knowledge of earthquake and hurricane science and an interest in exploring whether there or not there are increasing trends in severe earthquake and tropical storm events.
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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Wardle, Julee
(author)
Core Title
Tracking trends in earthquakes and tropical storms: a web GIS application
School
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Degree
Master of Science
Degree Program
Geographic Information Science and Technology
Publication Date
10/30/2019
Defense Date
08/05/2019
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
analysis,data science,Earthquakes,GIS,hurricanes,OAI-PMH Harvest,online GIS,spatial,tropical storms,web mapping,web mapping application
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Bernstein, Jennifer (
committee chair
), Ruddell, Darren (
committee member
), Sedano, Elizabeth (
committee member
)
Creator Email
juleewardle@gmail.com,wardle@usc.edu
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-229900
Unique identifier
UC11673111
Identifier
etd-WardleJule-7892.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-229900 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
etd-WardleJule-7892.pdf
Dmrecord
229900
Document Type
Thesis
Rights
Wardle, Julee
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA
Tags
analysis
data science
GIS
hurricanes
online GIS
spatial
tropical storms
web mapping
web mapping application