Final Report to the USDA Forest Service on the Storm Damage Assesment Protocol

Large-scale storm events that cause excessive tree damage can rapidly compromise public safety. Communities manage such catastrophes with varying degrees of efficiency and often rely on aid from state and federal government agencies to fund hazard reduction and debris removal. That aid depends significantly on the ability to estimate storm damage accurately and quickly. To date, however, there is no standard procedure for assessing the amount of damage that severe storms cause to trees on a community or regional basis. This protocol introduces a standard method to assess widespread storm damage in a simple, credible, and efficient manner immediately after a severe storm. This assessment method is adaptable to various community types and sizes, and it provides information on the time and funds needed to mitigate storm damage. The protocol involves a planning stage that evaluates a community's street-side and adjacent trees, and estimates the amount of cleanup that might be needed after a severe storm. In the planning stage, sample plots are randomly chosen in a community, a survey is performed, and time and cost estimates are made. Once a storm has passed and community-wide damage is evident, the same sample plots are re-surveyed. A qualified damage assessor evaluates the tree damage in each plot and uses the data to estimate the initial resources necessary for hazard mitigation and debris cleanup for the entire community.Since speed is critical under post-storm conditions, electronic media are recommended but are not required. A form was developed in Microsoft's Excel here so that all computations would be carried out automatically as soon as the field data were entered. Another electronic means, a data collection application developed with Pendragon Forms 3.1 software for use on personal digital assistants using the Palm OS, was also developed to facilitate data collection and entry.

Keywords: New Technologies;

Publisher: USDA Forest Service

Category: Urban Forestry

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