Rapid Evacuation Planning Tool for Non-Experts

1. Kenneth Pelman September 21, 2010

2. Introduction and Problem Statement • Evaluation Plans • Tool Description • Significance and Limitations • Future Research

3. GIS

4. Current Evacuation Planning Solutions require substantial development/acquisition costs and extensive training

5. ESRI Network Analyst • Very detailed, but expensive • GIS Analyst Needed • Custom Solutions • Hard-to-use interface • Customized for a specific case • Most don’t use real road network • Web Based Solutions

7. http://www.floridadisaster.org/PublicMapping/SurgeZones/SurgeZones_Levy.pdfhttp://www.floridadisaster.org/PublicMapping/SurgeZones/SurgeZones_Levy.pdf

8. Develop easy-to-use rapid evacuation planning tool that will make it possible for non-experts to quickly assess the impact of a potential evacuation • This tool should rely primarily on a simple, interactive, visually-enabled interface • The results the tool generates should provide actionable information that can be disseminated to decision-makers

9. Geospatial mashups have been used in the mitigation stage for disaster management and are viewed favorably by end users • Google APIs can be used to develop a new evacuation planning tool • Publicly available • Takes advantage of Google’s cloud • Iterative User-Centered Design/Evaluation can guide software development process

11. Establish user base of 5 people in emergency management community • Determine normal workflow for an emergency manager declaring an evacuation • Assess existing COTS solution (ESRI Network Analyst) in performing workflow • Time tasks take to perform • Ease of being able to perform tasks • Relevant statistics and information obtained from tasks

12. User feedback will be obtained after front-end interface is written as well as each piece of functionality • Case study of final tool to be performed for Washington D.C. area • Tool will be assessed by users • General questionairre asking users to assess their experience in working with the tool. • Ability to perform identified workflow in a timely manner

13. Ability to define area to be evacuated • KML overlay • User-drawn polygon • Ability to define evacuation centers • By defining a “place” • By selecting a series of points • Statistics on potential evacuation obtained for planning purposes

14. Each component will be tested and evaluated separately • Subversion will be employed for documentation and version control • Tool to be written in a combination of Javascript, PHP and AJAX • Final functionality will be dependant on user input

16. Landscan population data • SLOSH Model results • FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) • Buffer zone around a fault line

17. Evacuation tool performing complex spatial analysis with an easy-to-use interface • Relies on interactive, visual approach • Less need for a technical analyst / expensive software • Freely available • Only designed for mitigation stage • Requires internet access • Performance issues not explicitly assessed

18. Goal: present this project at the 2011 Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM) meeting • Extend tool to support response phase • Facilitate social media integration • Adapt interface for use on on mobile devices