Using GIS for Flood Evacuation Planning

Contents
1.0 Introduction 1.1 Emergency Planning Issues....... ................ 3
1.2 Evacuation Planning Objectives. 3 1.3.1 Population Distribution and Emergency Shelters 4

1.3 Meeting Objectives3

2.0 GIS Desktop Tools

2.1 2.2 ArcGIS Tools.. ... .4 Google Earth Tools. 5

3.0 Using GIS for Evacuation Planning

3.1 3.2 3.3 Socio-Geographical Information Analysis .5 Data Model........ 6 Data.....6

4.0 Planning Outcomes

4.1 Maps.6 4.2 Maps Required.. ... 7

5.0 Communicating Planning Outputs..... 8 6.0 Future Issues....8 7.0 Conclusion.8 References..9 Bibliography.. 12

1. Introduction
1.1 Emergency Planning Issues Evacuation is conducted in order to remove people from a dangerous area to a safer place, which usually needs to be done in a hurry. Evacuation planning is an important component of emergency preparedness. For a good emergency response evacuation plans should be prepared in advance. A central challenge in developing an evacuation plan is determining the distribution of evacuees into the safer areas, that is determining where and from which road evacuees should go (Saadateresht, Mansourian, Taleai 2008). Flooding is one of the countries top risks, so knowing the geographical limits of flooding is clearly important, especially when combined with information on human populations, infrastructure and other spatially distributed phenomena. 1.2 Evacuation Planning Objectives

The first step is identifying what the user requirements are and the nature of the data that you require to work with and must start with a set of objectives (Albrecht 2007:2). The objectives for evacuation planning are identifying the following:

Flood risk area Who is at risk Safest primary and secondary evacuation routes Safe areas to evacuate to Shelters in safe areas Shelter capacity Numbers of people to be evacuated Ability of people to evacuate How the planning outcomes will be presented to the planners and the public Meeting Objectives

1.3

Because most of the data required for emergency management and evacuation planning have a spatial component or location it provides the opportunity to utilize GIS. Saadateresht, Mansourian, Taleai propose a three-step approach using GIS. Step one is identifying safe places for evacuation the second step is to identify constraints and look at optimum routes to safe areas. The third step looks at distances to safe areas, the capacity of the safe areas and the population being evacuated (2008). In addition to this Weng highlights the need to look at simulations of movement of traffic along the road network and human element of which routes are chosen and which shelters are chosen, which can effect evacuation. This

can be pre-empted by allocating specific routes and shelters prior to evacuation so traffic routes can be controlled (2010). GIS has the ability to overlay mapping data with location identifiers for specific objects and factors. It is powerful in organizing and processing evacuation model outputs based on GISs spatial analysis capabilities and provides a visually effective display. Prescriptive models, which are aimed at seeking traffic control policies to guide evacuation traffic towards certain objectives desired by the emergency managers, can be used to explicitly search for optimal evacuation strategies (Chiu and Liu 2008:263). 1.3.1 Population Distribution and Emergency Shelters

To identify social vulnerability during evacuation, planning must be focused on the community. The New Orleans disaster showed those without access to vehicles suffered while more affluent members of the community were able to evacuate long before the storm hit. The population was much more vulnerable than officials assumed (Cutter,Emrich 2006). Alcada-Almedia et al say planning should use a multiobjective GIS model approach to look at population distribution and emergency shelters. Daytime population may be greater than night-time. Higher priority may be given to night-time evacuation given that it may be residents only and generally more elderly people. Several constraints need to be imposed/ factored in the design such as shelter thresholds, distance to shelter and if residents have transport (2009:12., Parrot and Stutz 1991). To undertake these evacuation planning proposals, geographical information and the technologies that capture, store, check, manipulate, analyse and display are clearly essential. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) has these technologies and is used as an interface for integrating and accessing massive amounts of location-based information, allowing personnel to effectively plan for emergencies but is currently underused in emergency planning (Goodchild 2006:227).

2.

GIS Desktop Tools

The following looks at ArcGIS and Google Earth as GIS desktop tools available for flood evacuation planning. 2.1 ArcGIS Tools

ArcMap is an essential tool in evacuation planning for data that is spatially distributed within an emergency planning zone. These data are analyzed using ArcMap tools and used to inform evacuation planning decisions. ArcMap also creates effective maps for evacuation plans which easily identify residents that live in the area being evacuated, best routes for

travel out of the area at risk and identify special facilities for evacuation centres (Forte 2010). ArcView allows you to view elevation readings of terrain, hydrological data, which allows you to predict how deep and widespread flooding is likely to be with address point data to identify properties (Norwich Union 2005). 2.2 Google Earth Tools

Google Earth is a tool which displays satellite images of varying resolution of the earths surface, allowing users to see cities and houses with 3D images of terrain and buildings. Whilst it displays layers of road networks, county boundaries and address data, it does not have the analytical tools to perform the complicated analysis on multiple datasets that evacuation planning requires (earth.google.com).

3. Using GIS for Evacuation Planning

3.1 Socio-Geographical Information Analysis Computers require unambiguous instructions on how to perform specific tasks, which have five primary entity types Points (single xy coordinate or pixel used to describe the location of an object) for shelters and properties at risk; lines which connect two or more points for distance; areas, an entity to represent extent of particular feature such as county boundary and flood extent; surfaces, where a surface can be defined by a quantative or qualitive measurement for elevation (which will require algorithms for conversion); and network is a series of interconnecting lines for the road network and river system. The complexity of the real world is such that GIS applications need to construct more complex models of reality consisting of several entity types. The most common method used in GIS to handle this problem is a layered approach. Individual layers will be constructed using the various entity types to represent different spatial elements. Each layer will need to be stored independently in the GIS using either raster or vector approaches. These data layers can then be used either independently in single layer operations or together as multiple layers, adjusting transparency to optimise the information shown. Exchanging spatial data between GIS can be problematic due to the diversity of spatial data structures. This means that we cannot simply transfer a raster file straight into a vector system and visa versa. One of the most debated areas in the raster-vector debate is data volume, as a rule raster spatial models are generally more demanding of data storage than their vector counterparts. (Trodd 2005). 3.2 Data Model

To find a solution to a spatial problem in GIS it requires a data model, which is a set of constructs for representing objects and processes in the digital environment of the computer, to support the design process. It has important implications for the types of

operations that can be performed and the results that can be obtained. Decisions about the type of model to be adopted are vital to the success of a GIS project (Longley et al 2005:178). These decisions need to be made jointly by the planners and GIS experts. It is important to capture the knowledge about the applications area, how it relates to emergency planning and incorporate it into the design of the database. Each must transform their own implicit knowledge into unambiguous and clear (explicit) statements for the benefit of others (Trodd 2006). Attention will need to be paid to cognitive issues in GIS storage, representation and analysis of earth-referenced data. For example: How the experts and laypeople conceptualize and reason about geographical space; How the spatial information is expressed in natural language; How interfaces should be designed to promote accurate and efficient communication of spatial and geographical information, such as scale (Montello 1997). Evacuation planning requires many entity types, complex analysis and data storage. ArcGIS provides the tools to undertake all these aspects, as detailed in Section 2.1, whilst Google Earth does not provide tools for complex analysis or storage of data analysis. 3.3 Data

Accessing existing data is a common way of incorporating data into a GIS project. The design and structure of the database is dependant upon the successful identification of the feature/objects to be represented. The first task is to assess and map the flooding risk in the geographical area under analysis which will provide the most appropriate planning strategies to adopt (Alexander 2002:12). As the lead for flooding the Environment Agency has maps, data, ArcGIS and expertise to manipulate and analyse existing data to meet the planning objectives. It would be efficient for them to provide the maps and information required, adding data on social vulnerability from planners, and is a more efficient use of existing technologies, for flood evacuation planning.

4.
4.1 Maps

Planning Outcomes

The whole process for evacuation is about informing planners and the public. The best method for evacuation planning for decision makers is to pre-model the risk using the GIS and to present results as paper maps. People would prefer to discuss emergency tasks around a large scale map on a table than rely on an operator to display the same information on a computer screen, which could also be affected by power failure (Zerger and Smith 2003). A good map is judged by how well it communicates with its audience and a project should always begin by considering the message to be conveyed and the audience

to be addressed (Foote and Crum 2000). The scale of investigation determines the range of patterns and processes that can be detected and therefore the most appropriate levels of resolution for study of these processes should be identified (Marceau 1999). Larger scale maps are appropriate for evacuation planning as they can contain more data but care needs to be taken to ensure that the essence of the phenomena or problem to be depicted is conveyed adequately to the map user, without being obscured by extraneous data i.e. excluding features that do not contribute to the process of locating what needs to be known (Alexander 2002:17). Corbett highlights the importance of a good graphic as the average human cannot easily grasp order out of multiple colour maps and care needs to be taken to provide a map legend to explain symbology used and a measurement scale so readers can measure distances between features (1983). When you are working at a large scale distortion does not play a big role and almost any projection that is centred on your area of interest will be appropriate. Spatial information can be overlaid on a 3D view of the terrain to provide a virtual reality transforming the information from pastel polygons to rendered objects of the shelter buildings and evacuation routes to give near photographic realism. Currently time is handled as a series of stored map layers that can be animated to view changes on the landscape. This could be used to show timings of flood extents to show priority evacuation areas until 4D GIS (XYZ and time) is available (GeoWorld 2006). 4.2 Maps Required

A combination of vector and raster maps will be required for evacuation planning and despite the fors and againsts of vector v raster approaches the analytical method for overlay does not differ dramatically, both use geometric relationships to create a cross reference between attributes. A main attribute for evacuation planning is distance, a relationship between two points, and can be totalled for aggregations of line segments as long as the aggregate distance is understood to be along a road network for instance and not as the crow flies (Chrisman 2002:158). Wade et al argue that raster calculations are faster, whilst vector methods give higher accuracy (2003:1399). Whilst ArcGIS has the software tools for the evacuation planning and mapping, Google Earth can provide the added 3D visual mapping tool for the emergency responders and the public maps, giving them a near photographic finish. Users will be able to view streets as they see them every day and identify shelters rather than see symbols and shapes on a map.

5.

Communicating Planning Outputs

Geoportals are world wide web gateways and provide the ability to collect data once and use it many times whilst avoiding duplication and provides a cost effective way of widening access to information resources (Maguire and Longley 2005:12). The web has proved popular as a vehicle for delivering GIS because of its powerful search engines. It is an established widely used platform and an accepted standard for interacting with information of many types. This will provide the tool for sharing the evacuation planning outputs to other organisations and the public. Users can use their desktop without having to download large amounts of data or installing specialized software. It is a cost-effective way of linking together distributed users such as emergency planners and the public (Longley et al 2005:21).

6. Future Issues
The GIS industry is under increasing pressure to ensure their products work with software that is becoming the de facto standard elsewhere. Also GIS companies see a clear development path that must allow their core products to serve geographical information to a multitude of devices. There are many reasons why software developers want users to upgrade. For example while the software functionality may appear the same the underlying technology may need to be totally revised (Barr 2002). This causes problems with budgets of existing users. It is very easy to lose touch with what is new in GIS, such is the scale and pace of its development (Longley et al 2005:xii).

7.

Conclusion

It is clear that GIS can be used as a framework and ArcGIS has the tools to carry out all the complex analysis of the data required to meet the objectives for evacuation planning. Google Earth 3D images linked to desk top applications will provide a more powerful communication tool for the public and emergency responders. Flood risk information is already provided to the public on the EAs website flood pages and provides the ideal location for the flood evacuation information, with planning outputs being stored on the web for partners to access.

References
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