The objective of this project is to evaluate how existing processes for anticipating and monitoring the performance of Department of Defense (DoD) installations can be adapted, extended, or directly utilized to inform the planning, response, recovery, and assessment of extreme weather events.

Installations require structured collection and utilization of vast amounts of information to be resilient to extreme weather events. Disruptions due to extreme weather are ideally rare events, however investments in such data are likely to be inconsistent across installations. Data for the actual design and performance of installations provides a set of supplemental data sources which are not sufficiently conceptualized, integrated, and leveraged for extreme weather planning. 

Data for performance of installations under stress or shock conditions presents an opportunity to identify specific areas of low robustness or resilience and improve in the face of potential future disruptive events. This project anticipates challenges and opportunities for collecting and leveraging new information for continuous improvement and targets them through a technical approach applied to Tyndall Air Force Base (AFB) and Naval Surface Warfare Center - Crane Division. Multiple tasks will comprise a systematic review of existing technologies (data collection, assessment methodologies, etc.), particularly as they were applied in the context of Hurricane Michael, and emerging technologies that may be cost-effective solutions to information utilization challenges. 

This project will provide 1) a framework for assessing the value of installation planning, operational data, models, and coordination that can inform targeted adoption, adaptation, or investigation of such technologies for extreme weather resilience; and 2) a Phase I assessment of promising subsets of such technologies and others which may be discovered during investigation with Tyndall AFB.

The improved ability to leverage installation planning and operations datasets and sensors will empower the DoD to achieve maximum impacts from the data investments. Tyndall AFB is an ideal partner installation not only because of the lessons learned from Hurricane Michael, but also because Tyndall’s rebuilding after the hurricane has emphasized the creation of new paradigms for master planning, real time operations, and re-evaluation of standard operating procedures which have resulted in rich expertise that can be leveraged by installations throughout the DoD. Building upon Tyndall’s existing and past funding streams as an installation of the future enables this study to leverage new technologies and datasets. Partnering with Naval Surface Warfare Center - Crane Division provides a unique opportunity to better understand extreme weather preparedness for installations with complex missions and subject to hazards atypical of coastal installations. Moreover, integration of weather extreme event models will enable an evaluation of these new paradigms against both current and potential future weather extremes. 

This emphasis on dual use aims to increase the economic viability and thus feasibility for technical transition of these methodologies by maximizing utility of the data across the installation life cycle, and not only directly in response to rare events.

 (Anticipated Project Completion - 2025)