Hurricane Ian Reconnaissance, in StEER/RAPID: Hurricane Ian

This project contains imagery collected from uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) flights over three barrier islands, Fort Myers Beach (FMB), San Carlos (SC), and Sanibel Island (SI), that are near Fort Myers, Florida, following Hurricane Ian. These barrier islands had substantial impacts from the hurricane, including the destruction of many residences and infrastructure, coastal degradation, and other environmental impacts. The imagery here was collected using a low-flying fixed-wing UAS with a high-resolution camera system that simultaneously collected oblique and nadir images from five lenses. The raw data set is very comprehensive and very dense. The extent of the collected data can be seen in the Hazmapper map.

The data was processed into 3D models using structure from motion. The resulting 3D models have amazing damage detail and are measurement quality. They can be used to fully characterize damage to buildings, infrastructure, and the natural environment. The complete models are available here, with one model developed for each UAS flight (18 total flights). However, the complete models are very large data sets and require significant GPU power to open and manipulate. Thus, the data set is also divided into “tiled” areas on a 300-meter grid. Each tiled area is provided in both a full-resolution 3D model and a reduced-resolution preview that can be used for quick inspection.

The abbreviations for Fort Myers Beach (FMB), San Carlos (SC), and Sanibel Island (SI) are used throughout.

The data set was collected and processed by the NHERI RAPID Facility and was part of the deployment by the Structural Engineering Extreme Events Reconnaissance Network (StEER).