Jeff Peters
Jeff Peters is a geographer at the Western Geographic Science Center (WGSC) who focuses on GIS research and websites.
Biography
Peters researches risk and vulnerability for natural hazards using geographic information science/systems (GIS). Peters works closely with state and community agencies and emergency managers to conduct GIS analyses that produce results that help them plan for future hazard events. These results include estimates of population exposure within and modeling evacuation out of hazard zones. Peters also builds interactive dashboards and websites to display these results in an accessible format.
Education:
M.A., Geography, San Jose State University, 2015
B.A., Geography, San Jose State University, 2010
A.A., Psychology, Cabrillo College, 2008
Science and Products
HayWired
The HayWired scenario examines a hypothetical earthquake (mainshock) with a moment magnitude of 7.0 occurring on April 18, 2018, at 4:18 p.m. on the Hayward Fault in the east bay part of California’s San Francisco Bay area. Most economic, cultural, and personal elements of society have grown entwined with the Internet since the last time California experienced a large urban earthquake. What...
Tsunamis
The 2004 Indian Ocean, 2010 Chilean, and 2011 Tohoku disasters have shown how tsunamis are significant threats to coastal communities. To help U.S. coastal communities prepare for future tsunamis, the Hazards Vulnerability Team completed projects related to population exposure and sensitivity, pedestrian evacuation modeling, and vertical-evacuation decision support.
A recent article of...
Coastal Change
The continued devastation from recent hurricanes and tropical storms demonstrates the vulnerability of coastal communities to coastal-change hazards. Changes in sea level and storm-wave intensity are changing the areas that are prone to erosion and storm-related flooding. The Hazards Vulnerability Team has worked with USGS coastal researchers and partners to improve our understanding of...
Volcanoes
As the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption showed, volcanoes pose significant threats to U.S. communities. Potential hazards posed by U.S. volcanoes include tephra falls, pyroclastic flows and surges, VOG, ballistic projectiles, lahar and lava flows. In collaboration with researchers from the USGS Volcano Hazards Program, the Hazards Vulnerability Team worked on better understanding and...
Hazards Vulnerability Team
Our country faces a wide array of natural hazards that threaten its safety, security, economic well-being, and natural resources. To minimize future losses, communities need a clear understanding of how they are vulnerable to natural hazards and of strategies for increasing their resilience. Vulnerability and resilience are influenced by (1) how communities choose to use hazard-prone land, (2...
Visualizing community exposure and evacuation potential to tsunami hazards using an interactive Tableau dashboard
USGS research for the Risk and Vulnerability to Natural Hazards project at the Western Geographic Science Center has produced several geospatial datasets estimating the time required to evacuate on foot from two tsunami evacuation zones (standard and extreme) traveling at three travel speeds (impaired, slow, and fast walking speeds) for the Island of O’ahu, HI. Tabulation of O’ahu resident and...
Hazards Societal Consequences and Risk Communication
The Hazards Societal Consequences and Risk Communication project is led by Anne Wein at the Western Geographic Science Center (WGSC).
The umbrella project is Science Application for Risk Reduction (SAFRR), which estimates consequences of natural hazard disaster scenarios as a strategy to engage decision-makers in increasing a community’s ability to cope with the effects of a disaster....
A data management and visualization framework for community vulnerability to hazards
USGS research in the Western Geographic Science Center has produced several geospatial datasets estimating the time required to evacuate on foot from a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake-generated tsunami in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. These data, created as a result of research performed under the Risk and Vulnerability to Natural Hazards project, are useful for emergency managers and...
SAFRR Tsunami Scenario
The third SAFRR scenario is initiated by a magnitude 9.0 megathrust earthquake in the eastern Aleutian Islands, an event presenting a hypothetical but plausible distant-tsunami threat to southern and central California. USGS and other federal and state agencies entities developed the SAFRR Tsunami Scenario. The scenario describes wave heights, current velocities and inundation for the coast of...
California's Exposure to Volcanic Hazards
A geonarrative summary of the USGS report that provides a broad perspective on California’s exposure to volcanic hazards. By integrating volcanic hazard information with geospatial data on populations, infrastructure, and resources, the results provide estimates of impacts to people and our environment if an eruption were to occur.
Vehicular Demand estimation for short-notice, distant-tsunami evacuation of Bay Farm Island, CA
Distant tsunamis require short-notice evacuations in coastal communities to minimize threats to life safety. Given the available time to evacuate and potential distances out of hazard zones, coastal transportation planners and emergency managers can expect large proportions of populations to evacuate using vehicles. A community-wide, short-notice, distant-tsunami evacuation is challenging b...
Pedestrian tsunami evacuation results for three California probabilistic tsunami hazard zones and four travel speeds (shapefiles) and impaired walk travel times for all zones by parcel land-use and flow depth class (tables)
These datasets supports the conclusions in the journal article entitled "Variations in community evacuation potential related to average return periods in probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis" as described in the abstract below: Tsunami risk management requires strategies that can address multiple sources with different recurrence intervals, wave-arrival times, and inundation extents.
Pedestrian tsunami evacuation results for two tsunami-evacuation zones (standard and extreme) and three travel speeds (impaired, slow, and fast walk) for O'ahu, HI
This data release is comprised of a set of six time travel map shapefiles (two tsunami evacuation zones and three travel times) and three population exposure by travel time tables (residents, employees, and hotel visitors). The travel time map was generated using the Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst model from the USGS (https://...
Oahu Tsunami Evacuation Dashboard
Tsunami waves created by earthquakes far from Hawai’i arrive hours later along Hawaiian shorelines but can be difficult to escape if everyone uses their cars to evacuate. Working with the Hawai’i Emergency Management Agency, researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) used computer modeling to identify areas where people should be able to evacuate on foot in less than 15 minutes.
Variations in community evacuation potential related to average return periods in probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis
Tsunami risk management requires strategies that can address multiple sources with different recurrence intervals, wave-arrival times, and inundation extents. Probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis (PTHA) provides a structured way to integrate multiple sources, including the uncertainties due to the natural variability and limited knowledge of...
Wood, Nathan J.; Peters, Jeff; Wilson, Rick I.; Sherba, Jason T.; Henry, Kevin Influence of demand and capacity in transportation simulations of short-notice, distant-tsunami evacuations
Distant tsunamis require short-notice evacuations in coastal communities to minimize threats to life safety. Given the available time to evacuate and potential distances out of hazard zones, coastal transportation planners and emergency managers can expect large proportions of populations to evacuate using vehicles. A community-wide, short-notice...
Wood, Nathan J.; Henry, Kevin; Peters, Jeff
California’s exposure to volcanic hazards
The potential for damaging earthquakes, landslides, floods, tsunamis, and wildfires is widely recognized in California. The same cannot be said for volcanic eruptions, despite the fact that they occur in the state about as frequently as the largest earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault. At least ten eruptions have taken place in the past 1,000...
Mangan, Margaret; Ball, Jessica; Wood, Nathan; Jones, Jamie L.; Peters, Jeff; Abdollahian, Nina; Dinitz, Laura; Blankenheim, Sharon; Fenton, Johanna; Pridmore, Cynthia
Community for Data Integration fiscal year 2017 funded project report
The U.S. Geological Survey Community for Data Integration annually funds small projects focusing on data integration for interdisciplinary research, innovative data management, and demonstration of new technologies. This report provides a summary of the 11 projects funded in fiscal year 2017, outlining their goals, activities, and outputs.
Hsu, Leslie; Allstadt, Kate E.; Bell, Tara M.; Boydston, Erin E.; Erickson, Richard A.; Everette, A. Lance; Lentz, Erika E.; Peters, Jeff; Reichert, Brian E.; Nagorsen, Sarah; Sherba, Jason T.; Signell, Richard P.; Wiltermuth, Mark; Young, John A. Pedestrian evacuation modeling to reduce vehicle use for distant tsunami evacuations in Hawaiʻi
Tsunami waves that arrive hours after generation elsewhere pose logistical challenges to emergency managers due to the perceived abundance of time and inclination of evacuees to use vehicles. We use coastal communities on the island of Oʻahu (Hawaiʻi, USA) to demonstrate regional evacuation modeling that can identify where successful pedestrian-...
Wood, Nathan J.; Jones, Jamie; Peters, Jeff; Richards, Kevin Community disruptions and business costs for distant tsunami evacuations using maximum versus scenario-based zones
Well-executed evacuations are key to minimizing loss of life from tsunamis, yet they also disrupt communities and business productivity in the process. Most coastal communities implement evacuations based on a previously delineated maximum-inundation zone that integrates zones from multiple tsunami sources. To support consistent evacuation...
Wood, Nathan J.; Wilson, Rick I.; Ratliff, Jamie L.; Peters, Jeff; MacMullan, Ed; Krebs, Tessa; Shoaf, Kimberley; Miller, Kevin Intra-community implications of implementing multiple tsunami-evacuation zones in Alameda, California
Tsunami-evacuation planning in coastal communities is typically based on maximum evacuation zones for a single scenario or a composite of sources; however, this approach may over-evacuate a community and overly disrupt the local economy and strain emergency-service resources. To minimize the potential for future over-evacuations, multiple...
Peters, Jeff; Wood, Nathan J.; Wilson, Rick; Miller, Kevin Community exposure in California to coastal flooding hazards enhanced by climate change, reference year 2010
The data set contains information on potential population, economic, land cover, and infrastructure flooding exposure for San Francisco Bay and coastal communities of the state of California, USA. The type of information includes U.S. Census data on the number and types of residents, InfoGroup data on numbers and types of employees, county parcel...
Jones, Jeanne M.; Wood, Nathan J.; Ng, Peter; Henry, Kevin; Jones, J.L.; Peters, Jeff; Jamieson, Matthew Agricultural damages and losses from ARkStorm scenario flooding in California
Scientists designed the ARkStorm scenario to challenge the preparedness of California communities for widespread flooding with a historical precedence and increased likelihood under climate change. California is an important provider of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and other agricultural products to the nation. This study analyzes the agricultural...
Wein, Anne; Mitchell, David; Peters, Jeff; Rowden, John; Tran, Johnny; Corsi, Alessandra; Dinitz, Laura B. GOES-derived fog and low cloud indices for coastal north and central California ecological analyses
Fog and low cloud cover (FLCC) changes the water, energy, and nutrient flux of coastal ecosystems. Easy-to-use FLCC data are needed to quantify the impacts of FLC on ecosystem dynamics during hot, dry Mediterranean climate summers. FLCC indices were generated from 26,000 hourly night and day FLCC maps derived from Geostationary Environmental...
Torregrosa, Alicia; Cindy Combs; Peters, Jeff Variations in population vulnerability to tectonic and landslide-related tsunami hazards in Alaska
Effective tsunami risk reduction requires an understanding of how at-risk populations are specifically vulnerable to tsunami threats. Vulnerability assessments primarily have been based on single hazard zones, even though a coastal community may be threatened by multiple tsunami sources that vary locally in terms of inundation extents and wave...
Wood, Nathan J.; Peters, Jeff Changes in population evacuation potential for tsunami hazards in Seward, Alaska, since the 1964 Good Friday earthquake
Pedestrian evacuation modeling for tsunami hazards typically focuses on current land-cover conditions and population distributions. To examine how post-disaster redevelopment may influence the evacuation potential of at-risk populations to future threats, we modeled pedestrian travel times to safety in Seward, Alaska, based on conditions before...
Wood, Nathan J.; Schmidtlein, Mathew C.; Peters, Jeff
Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst Tool
The Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst is an ArcGIS extension that estimates how long it would take for someone to travel on foot out of a hazardous area that was threatened by a sudden event such as a tsunami, flash flood, or volcanic lahar. It takes into account the elevation changes and the different types of landcover that a person would encounter along the way.
New Geo-Narrative explores California’s exposure to volcanic hazards
The first step in mitigating volcanic risk and building community resilience to volcanic hazards is identifying what and who is in harm’s way.
Tsunami Evacuation Plans – One Size Does Not Fit All: A Case Study in Alameda, California
Tsunami evacuation planning in coastal communities is typically based on maximum evacuation zones that reflect a combination of all potential extreme tsunamis. However, in the case of a smaller tsunami, this approach may result in more people being evacuated than need to be, and in doing so, may overly disrupt the local economy, and strain resources needed during emergency response.