Posted on 03/05/2008 2:24:39 PM PST by blam
US Cities At High Risk For Terrorist Attacks Identified
A color-coded map identifies American cities' level of risk to bioterrorism. Red identifies urban areas of highest risk, yellow is medium risk, and green is lowest risk. (Credit: Walter W. Piegorsch
ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2008) — A University of Arizona researcher has created a new system to dramatically show American cities their relative level of vulnerability to bioterrorism.
Walter W. Piegorsch, an expert on environmental risk, has placed 132 major cities -- from Albany, N.Y., to Youngstown, Ohio -- on a color-coded map that identifies their level of risk based on factors including critical industries, ports, railroads, population, natural environment and other factors.
Piegorsch is the director of a new UA graduate program in interdisciplinary statistics and a professor of mathematics in the College of Science, as well as a member of the UA's BIO5 Institute.
The map marks high-risk areas as red (for example, Houston and, surprisingly, Boise, ID), midrange risk as yellow (San Francisco) and lower risk as green (Tucson). The map shows a wide swath of highest-risk urban areas running from New York down through the Southeast and into Texas. Boise is the only high-risk urban area that lies outside the swath.
The model employs what risk experts call a benchmark vulnerability metric, which shows risk managers each city's level of risk for urban terrorism.
Piegorsch says terrorism vulnerability involves three dimensions of risk -- social aspects, natural hazards and construction of the city and its infrastructure.
He concludes that the allocation of funds for preparedness and response to terrorism should take into account these factors of vulnerability.
"Our capacity to adequately prepare for and respond to these vulnerabilities varies widely across the country, especially in urban areas," he wrote in an article about the research. Piegorsch argues that "any one-size-fits-all strategy" of resource allocation and training ignores the reality of the geographic differences identified in his study. Such failures, he says, would "limit urban areas' abilities to prepare for and respond to terrorist events."
The research, funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was published in a recent issue of Risk Analysis, a journal published by the Society for Risk Analysis.
Piegorsch was the lead author, in collaboration with Susan L. Cutter, director of the Hazards & Vulnerability Research Institute and Carolina Distinguished Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina; and Frank Hardisty, research faculty at the GeoVISTA Center at Pennsylvania State University.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Arizona.
It looks as if Michigan is more safe than Idaho.
Boise, Idaho is red and not LA, Seattle or Las Vegas?
I can read it well enough to see that “We’re all gonna die in Dallas!!”
I wonder why Boise?
I think the research is flawed.
at least were better off then the cesspool of Houston....
Mickey D's french fry potatoes?
That map is a little strange. South Carolina has three hot spots.
A very handy planning tool for AQ?
(For resource allocation, etc.)
Living life in the big white space.
So you’re one of those with Big H complex, eh?
Where do you think the terrorists are living now? ;-)
Maybe I’ll move back to the U.P.!
Thanks, Tom.
Detroit suburbs?
I’m surprised Las Vegas or Hollywood are not red. No red at all in California.
Potato viruses. They've been all over the news. Cause really ugly skin problems.
Why is Boise, Idaho bright red? Is there something here that I don’t know about.
TADSLOS wrote: Boise, Idaho is red and not LA, Seattle or Las Vegas?
Yeah if they hit Boise we could have a potato famine.
You’re in Austin, and you have the cojones to call Houston a cesspool?
Perhaps you should remove the smelly hippie from your own eye first. :)
I call B.S.!!!!! Utah has areas in yellow where it is salt desert with no population, industrial production, or even infrastructure. How can such an area be at risk for terrorism?
How much does land cost in central Wyoming these days?
Idaho, South Carolina have large nuclear weapons sites.
look at my tagline I currently reside in the great capitalist mecca of Dallas. Central Dallas at that in an area of recent gentrification too :) , kicked out the ghetto and built gorgeous vertical mixed use yuppie pads. downtown Dallas is coming on strong too not just uptown but all around the cities core. Out with old and busted in with new hotness
University of AZ probably got a grant to make the study....thanks to liberal congress people.....
Interesting.
I guess New Orleans is one big target. But who’d have thought Tampa was more at risk than Miami?
Seems like NYC needs some kind of hyper-color beyond red. Kind of surprised CT is mostly yellow, as it feels so much safer up here than when I was in Manhattan.
Let me translate. Money. This is a map of where the “anti-terrorism” leprechan has hid grand pots of federal gold.
I’m from Katy originally. Still pissed that H town gobbled up a good “red blooded” little city to be part of the multicultural beast GRRRR. How u like them Katrina people H town?
>I’m surprised Las Vegas or Hollywood are not red. No red at all in California.<
Isn’t California the birthplace of embracing diversity, multiculturalism and political correctness?
Berkeley types fight for the enemy!
Makes sense to me.
Looks like they have counties and not cities shaded in for there are huge areas of California in yellow that are nothing but sagebrush and jackrabbits.
There is only one city in major danger of attack, and they will attempt to hit it again, bigger this time.
Lesser so, but still at risk, is South Florida, because of the high concentration of Jewish persons, a favorite target of militant Towel-heads.
Green is low risk, white is no data. White is not low risk.
Guess these terrorists aren't up on current events. New Orleans was destroyed in 2005. It was Bush's fault.
I can explain the Boise thing. They caught about a thousand red-eyed, unshaven, drug-addled terrorists in semis headed into town with loads of firearms and ammonium nitrate. My neighbors were headed to the BSU game.
Yea but where the nukes in Idaho are at apparently aren’t at risk according to this map :)
The guy is a grant whore, and ignores the standard metric.
... at least were better off then the cesspool of Houston ???
I'm thinking that your use of then rather than than probably wasn' a typo JD, which begs the question:
Your tag line says Austinite in the Big D .. which one of the two places were you living in when your brain began to atrophy?
Michigan is mooselimb central in America.
Never figured that one out but a very large mid east population lives in Michigan?
Go figure?
They aren’t going to take out where they live, unlike say blacks who riot and tear apart their own neighborhoods.
If it’s Hitlery, she’ll get the call and SCREAM as she runs to protect herself and her family while you are targeted.
Tampa is where SOCOM HQ is located.
Uh, didn’t they just have a terrorist attack in Seattle?
Could be a soft-target threat. School, mall, etc.
There are places around Albany NY and the Hudson Valley where small group of terrorists could shutdown the water supply to NYC, the power supply to NYC, and the gas supply to 85% of New England. And the mappings are all publicly available.
Pataki was way too liberal regarding FOIA/sunshine laws vs national and state security concerns when this was first brought to public attention during the lead up to the Y2K scare.
Thanks, Rocky Mountain High.
Thanks, coloradan—I’m actually in a green area of CT.
Is there a working link to the article or map?
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