Visualizing volcanic hazards: A systematic approach using National Land Cover Data for enhancing sustainable mitigation research (Washington)

The diversity of geography offers many opportunities for integrating a variety of subject matters and research methodologies in an effort to understand the interrelationships between human activity and the physical environment. Improvements in technology, in the form of visualization techniques and tools, aid in the interpretation of research data and facilitate the communication of new discoveries. The research described here is in direct response for a broader application of technological advances for future accomplishments in volcanic hazards 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 cartography) is needed to accomplish information transfer (from site, socioeconomic, and event information to impact information) to decision- and policy-makers and the public; and (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. These three research objectives were achieved using a systematic approach and the NLCD to specifically visualize flowage and tephra fallout hazards from Mount Rainier. This dissertation research, using the NLCD and geographic and hazards mapping methodologies for visualizing physical and socioeconomic landscapes in conjunction with the volcanic event and impact, demonstrates a systematic approach for enhancing sustainable mitigation research and provides a useful approach for the visualization solutions to research questions posed in other environmental specializations.