The Defense Department is playing around with a shape-shifting, color-changing sandbox to limit the carnage from the next deadly flood, wildfire or other catastrophe.
That is the promise behind the “Tangible Landscape.”
Made up of kinetic sand, a toy that feels like the stuff on the beach but has the consistency of Silly Putty, the system’s miniature bridges, lakes and other structures morph—or disappear—when a finger crushes critical infrastructure.
“Our goal is to provide planners with an intuitive, collaborative tool to design more resilient environments, identify and better understand where the critical, high-risk locations are,” said Helena Mitasova, associate director of geovisualization at North Carolina State University.