Week 7 MEDS Protect - Critical Infrastructure and Surveillance

The week 7 lab used the MEDS data we prepared in week 6 to create two maps.  In the first part of the lab we identified critical infrastructure, in this case hospitals, within three miles of the Boston Marathon Finish Line and created security checkpoints within 500 feet of the finish line.  The second part of the lab focused on optimum placement of security cameras surrounding the finish line area.  These two maps will allow for vulnerability assessment and protection of potential target areas during the Boston Marathon Event.  By creating a three mile buffer zone around the finish line we were able to use select by location tools to identify critical infrastructure by summarizing the data in the attribute table.  After determining the critical structure, we narrowed our focus to only hospitals.  We created a 500 foot radius around the finish line point and each hospital.  By generating a near table we could identify the ten hospitals closest to the finish line.  Our next task was to determine the best location for security checkpoints surrounding the 500 foot finish line radius.  This task was simplified using the Analysis and Overlay Intersect Tool.  This information comprised the initial map.  The second map would further aid homeland security personnel by optimizing locations for surveillance cameras.  We generated a raster dataset from the LiDAR in order to produce accurate elevation data for our subsequent analyses.  Since the finish line is surrounded by numerous high rise structures, it is important to determine the location of shadows cast by the sun for the race finish time.  Using the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications website we determined the altitude and angle of the sun at 2:30pm on April 15, 2013.  Entering this information into the hillshade function produced a shaded relief of the landscape at the specified moment in time.  Draping the orthoimagery over this hillshade raster aided in selecting locations for surveillance cameras.  Once in place we performed a viewshed analysis to determine which camera locations provided the greatest visible coverage.  The next process was to create a line of sight from each proposed camera to the finish line.  Using the 3D Analyst Line of Sight tool we could adjust the surveillance height to create an unobstructed view between camera and finish line.    Points and heights were tweaked until almost all views were unobstructed.  The Profile Graph tool allowed us to produce a graph of a line of sight, in this case we chose the worst scenario.