Center for Disaster Risk Policy (CDRP)

Another FSU Football season is underway. The EMHS UAS Team is out again supporting FSU PD and FSU EM making sure our fans have a great time. These long days are great opportunities to give students experience in how UAS integrate with public safety, and they let us test new software and equipment.

CDRP is currently testing the Skydio X2E system as we refresh our fleet. There are a lot of things to like about the X2E, no the least of which is the ease of performing mapping missions. Today we flew a 2D GPS Grid mission, a 2D mission, and a 3D modeling mission, and watching the aircraft automatically dodge power lines, guy wires, trees, and posts as it mapped was incredible. The 2d mission data was pulled into Pix4Dreact and processed in almost no time flat. Pretty good day pushing UAS forward!

Our team was in North Miami the past three days with Florida Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1 (FL-TF1) as we participated in the annual FIU disaster exercise. Despite the heat, we accomplished quite a bit, including: a solid field test of Starlink, initial integration of real-time ATAK position information into ESRI ArcGIS, testing of new statewide TeamConnect TAK server, deployment of multiple UAS operating under UAS Tool in ATAK, live streaming to Tallahassee via Starlink, rapid mapping and push of processed products to ArcGIS Online and ATAK devices (sub 15 minutes flight-to-screen time), and of course lots of networking.

We are always focused on what comes next.

Spending money on mitigation = saving money during response and recovery 💯
Last week professor David Merrick discussed the importance of mitigation efforts with Marketplace. He explained that it can be difficult to convince decision makers to spend money on mitigation especially during blue skies or when an area has not recently seen a major storm. Yet as the Atlantic warms and storms become more severe, it's an increasingly risky gamble.
Read more here!

More severe hurricane seasons bring higher costs As climate change makes storms more severe, the costs of mitigating and recovering from damage is also on the rise.