David Abramson

Primary Convener:
David Abramson, New York University

In the wake of the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires, the Public Health Extreme Events Research Network (PHEER) partnered with the NHERI Rapid Facility to conduct hyperspectral imaging of 25 fire-affected census blocks in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities in California. The spatial and spectral data were acquired at a two-centimeter resolution, and encompassed approximately 1,000 households. Ongoing analyses are underway to quantify toxins in soil, debris, water, and air, and will be incorporated into dose-response health outcome studies. In addition, data from other research teams’ exposure assessments and crowd-sourced data are being identified and referenced on an online mapping portal; a subset of that data will be available through a HIPPA-compliant data warehouse. Altogether, these data may be used to validate the precision of the hyperspectral data, and to add to the researchers’ analyses of toxic exposures. As a network of public health disaster scientists, PHEER is committed to sharing perishable data in the aftermath of extreme events. This session will consider: the current state of human subjects’ protection in light of evolving remote sensing technologies, data privacy, and confidentiality; the potential risks to individuals and homeowners; and the limitations of current regulatory frameworks for protecting privacy.

Index Terms
0230 Impacts of climate change: human health
1904 Community standards
4337 Remote sensing and disasters
6615 Legislation and regulations

Cross-Listed:
NH - Natural Hazards
SY - Science and Society