An update from Fort Bend County, Texas and their recent use of Esri Startup company, GroundVu, for obtaining 3D imagery of flood areas.
On September 3rd, a team from the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Center for Robotic-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) ran an air boat through the Canyon Gate subdivision of Cinco Ranch capturing 360-degree images of all the affected homes in that neighborhood using GroundVu, a 3D imaging technology based in California. On September 4th, the team from GroundVu deployed again on a National Guard truck to image areas of the neighborhood accessible in a high-water vehicle to map as much of the remaining subdivision they could.
The resulting imagery allows residents in these areas to browse the map of street-view-like data or enter an address to see the 360-degree photo of that location. Imagery is only available for areas show in the inset map which are indicated by a blue circle.
These images are not gathered in real-time, but show water lines on property and can help residents get a good idea of what damages may have occurred to their homes which cannot typically be gained with drone imagery alone.
The image viewer can be accessed below, note that you may have to click on a blue circle in the inset map for the images to load, and that searching for an address outside the captured area will not show any images.
https://groundvu.github.io/ground-vu-fort-bend/?config=15d1e7c75f6b494e9ed922c31544e371&org=fbcgis
