A SYSTEMATIC MAPPING APPROACH USING NATIONAL LAND COVER DATA FOR VISUALIZING VOLCANIC HAZARDS

The diversity of geography offers many opportunities for integrating a variety of subject matters and methodologies in an effort to understand the interrelationships between human activity and the physical environment. Improvements in technology in the form of visualization tools and techniques are now beginning to aid in the interpretation of research data and to facilitate the communication of new discoveries. This research is in direct response to the need for effective visualization of volcanic hazards to encourage sustainable mitigation research. The four objectives of this research are: 1) to demonstrate the utility of the National Land Cover Data (NLCD) for hazard mitigation visualization, particularly volcanic hazards; 2) to illustrate how visualization (not just simple cartography) is needed to accomplish information transfer (from site, socioeconomic, and event information to impact information) to decision- and policy-makers and the public; 3) to invoke the visualization process by synergistically combining graphics, tables, maps, geographic information system (GIS) layers, and qualitative data in information transfer models for hazard specialists and the public; and 4) to apply the systematic mapping approach to specifically visualize flowage and tephra fallout hazards from Mount Rainier using the NLCD. This research, using geographic and hazards mapping methodologies, developed to visualize the physical and socioeconomic landscapes in conjunction with the volcanic event and impact, demonstrates a systematic methodology for enhancing sustainable mitigation research and provides a useful approach for the visualization solutions to research questions posed in other environmental specializations.