Harvard Design and Mapping (HDM), which was acquired by CoreLogic earlier this year, provided specialized geospatial expertise to support FEMA's efforts when Hurricane Katrina struck. A year later, HDM still plays an important role in recovery efforts.

Immediately after the storm, HDM staff members-as many as six at a time, working in shifts 24/7-were deployed to work on-site at FEMA's Mapping Analysis Center in Washington, D.C. There, they assisted FEMA analysts with initial damage assessment and mapping.

As recovery progressed, HDM participated in development of databases and maps to track the location and availability of emergency housing for displaced residents. In addition, HDM has been using its own proprietary software, called GeoNumero, to monitor the "repopulation" of New Orleans as residents gradually return to their city.

"Emergency management officials can't go into every neighborhood and knock on doors to see whether residents have left, stayed, or left and then returned," HDM president Kija Kim explains. "Using GeoNumero, we conduct statistical sampling of key areas, which enables us to project the number of residents actually in the city at any given time, and where they are located. Obviously this information has been, and continues to be, critical to the coordination of relief efforts, allocation of aid resources, management of recovery efforts and a whole range of other activities."

HDM continues to have a staff member on-site at the Mapping Analysis Center.