LANZAT: From Cape Canaveral, We Launch Climate Resilience

LANZAT is a comprehensive climate vulnerability assessment platform developed for the NASA Space Apps Challenge 2025. The name is a portmanteau combining “lanzar” (Spanish for “launch”) and NASA’s Landsat satellite program - inspired by Cape Canaveral, where NASA launches both rockets and earth observation missions. From there, LANZAT launches communities toward climate resilience.

The Problem

Florida faces a perfect storm of climate challenges:

Climate Threats:

• 80% of Florida counties are in critical flood risk zones
• Recurring hurricanes, tropical storms, and flooding since the 1850s
• Hurricane Ian (2022) caused $112 billion in damages alone
• Agricultural losses affecting citrus crops (oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits)

Data Gap:

• Government agencies have scattered data across FEMA, CDC, NOAA, and NASA
• No unified tool for budget prioritization and decision-making
• Lack of transparency in territorial planning
• Difficult to visualize and communicate risk to stakeholders

The Solution

LANZAT combines 173 years of historical satellite data with real-time meteorological and economic information to create an interactive vulnerability assessment platform.

Core Features

Geospatial Data Concatenation

• Weather Stations: Dew point, humidity, temperature (max/min/average)
• NASA Satellite Imagery: NOAA IBTrACS dataset (1850-2023)
• Economic Data: GDP by county from Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
• Social Vulnerability: CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)
• Real-time Updates: Active hurricane tracking via NOAA National Hurricane Center API

Intelligent Predictive Model

The platform calculates a comprehensive vulnerability score using a weighted algorithm:

Vulnerability Index =
  25% × Hurricane Risk (historical) +
  20% × Social Vulnerability +
  20% × Economic Vulnerability +
  20% × Property Values +
  15% × Rural Zones (agriculture)

Validation: 87% correlation with Hurricane Ian damage data, providing strong retrospective validation of the model’s accuracy.

Multi-Level Risk Assessment

The platform identifies critical areas across five dimensions:

• Governmental: Budget prioritization for emergency preparedness
• Environmental: Critical conservation zones
• Atmospheric: Historical climate patterns and trends
• Geographic: Interactive heat maps with risk visualization
• Cadastral: Territorial planning and zoning recommendations

Interactive Demo Features

The live platform at lanzat.ignacio.tech provides:

1. Interactive Florida Map: All 67 counties color-coded by vulnerability level

   • Red: Critical vulnerability (80-100%)
   • Orange: High (60-80%)
   • Yellow: Moderate (40-60%)

2. County-Level Details: Click any county to see:

   • Vulnerability index (0-100)
   • GDP and economic impact
   • Hurricane probability
   • Population at risk

3. Scatter Plot Analysis: Visualize the relationship between GDP and hurricane risk to identify high-value, high-risk areas requiring priority investment

4. Real-Time Tracking: Active hurricane monitoring during storm season (June-November)

Technical Implementation

Architecture

Backend:

• FastAPI (Python 3.11) for high-performance API
• GeoPandas + GDAL for geospatial processing
• Shapely for geometric operations
• Pandas for data analysis and transformation

Frontend:

• Next.js 14 with TypeScript (strict mode)
• Leaflet for interactive mapping
• Recharts for data visualizations
• Tailwind CSS for responsive UI

Data Sources:

• NOAA IBTrACS: 704 historical storms (1851-2023)
• US Census TIGER/Line: County geometries
• BEA: County-level GDP data
• CDC SVI: Social vulnerability index
• FEMA NRI: National Risk Index

Infrastructure:

• Docker + Docker Compose for containerization
• Coolify for deployment automation
• RESTful API with OpenAPI/Swagger documentation

Data Pipeline

The platform processes data through a multi-stage pipeline:

1. Data Acquisition: Automated downloads from NOAA, Census Bureau, BEA, and CDC
2. Risk Calculation: Historical hurricane frequency, intensity, and trajectory analysis
3. Data Enrichment: Integration of economic and social vulnerability metrics
4. Normalization: Min-max scaling and weighted scoring
5. Real-Time Updates: Active storm tracking every 6 hours during hurricane season

Performance Metrics

• Initial Map Load: < 3 seconds
• API Response Time: < 500ms
• Data Accuracy: 87% correlation with Hurricane Ian damages
• Historical Coverage: 173 years of storm data (1850-2023)
• Geographic Coverage: All 67 Florida counties

Business Model: B2G (Business to Government)

LANZAT is designed specifically for government decision-makers with a freemium B2G model:

Why B2G?

• Transparency: Governments can demonstrate data-driven decision-making
• Fiscal Optimization: Risk-adjusted taxation and investment strategies
• Urban Planning: Evidence-based zoning and construction guidelines
• Agricultural Protection: Strategic investment in rural farming communities
• Alignment with NASA Goals: Sustainable human settlements and climate adaptation

Target Markets:

• High-value counties: Palm Beach (homes worth $2-4M), Pinellas, Lake, Butler
• State-level emergency management agencies
• Federal agencies (FEMA, NOAA) for integration and expansion

Pricing Tiers:

1. Basic (Free): Small counties (<100K population) and academic institutions
2. Premium ($50K/year): Large counties and states with custom reports and real-time alerts
3. Enterprise (Custom): Federal agencies with full API integration and SLA

Year 1 Projection: 50 Premium clients = $2.5M ARR

Future Vision: Quantum Computing

While the current classical computing model achieves 87% accuracy, atmospheric simulation is inherently quantum-mechanical with millions of superposed variables:

• Soil moisture, tree dew, temperature, pressure interactions
• Millions of interconnected atmospheric variables
• Current supercomputers make approximations due to computational limits

Quantum Advantage (5-10 year timeline):

• Native simulation of superposed atmospheric states
• 20-30% improvement in prediction accuracy
• Real-time processing of multiple climate scenarios
• Integration with IBM Qiskit or Google Cirq when commercially available

Current Status: Fully functional with classical computing; quantum computing is a forward-looking enhancement, not a dependency.

Impact and Recognition

NASA Space Apps Challenge 2025:

• Developed during the hackathon in Valencia, Spain, organized by Space Apps Valencia
• Special thanks to the wonderful local organizers who made this event possible
• Addresses NASA’s challenge on sustainable human settlements
• Functional production deployment demonstrating technical viability

Real-World Impact:

• Miami-Dade County: 87/100 vulnerability score, $365B GDP, 2.7M people at risk
• Agricultural Protection: Identifies critical citrus-growing regions requiring investment
• Early Interest: Initial discussions with Palm Beach County officials

Key Differentiators:

• Not just risk assessment (like FEMA) - adds economic and social vulnerability layers
• Government-ready visualization tools for public communication
• Retrospective validation with real disaster data (Hurricane Ian)
• Production deployment, not just a prototype
• Clear business model for sustainability

Data Transparency and Privacy

LANZAT prioritizes open science and data privacy:

• 100% Public Data: All sources are publicly available (NOAA, Census, BEA, CDC)
• Zero PII: Aggregated county-level data only, no personal information
• GDPR Compliant: No personal data processing
• Open Science: Commitment to transparent methodology and reproducible research

Expansion Roadmap

MVP: Florida (Current)

• 80% of counties in critical risk
• 173 years of historical data available
• High economic value ($2-4M homes)
• Strategic validation market

Phase 2: Gulf Coast (Q2)

• Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama
• Expansion of hurricane tracking coverage

Phase 3: Atlantic Coast (Q3)

• Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia
• Integration of additional climate threats (nor’easters)

Phase 4: Caribbean (Q4)

• Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands
• Tropical climate adaptation

Get Involved

LANZAT represents the intersection of space technology, climate science, and social impact. Whether you’re a government official, researcher, or developer interested in climate resilience:

• Try the Live Demo: lanzat.ignacio.tech
• Explore the API: lanzat.api.ignacio.tech/docs
• View the Code: GitHub Repository
• Contact: [email protected]

From Cape Canaveral, where NASA launches rockets, LANZAT launches communities toward climate resilience.

Because protecting lives and property? That’s invaluable.