Emergency Preparedness

Geospatial technologies—GIS, GPS, traffic microsimulation and spatial optimization modeling—offer objective solutions to problems facing emergency planners. We offer these solutions in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Evacuation Planning

The natural disasters of 2004-2005 presented compelling evidence of the need for evacuation planning at the local level. Does adequate road capacity exist? Are clearance times up to standard? Where do roads lead—out of trouble or into more? We estimate travel demand at various times of the day/week, microsimulate traffic interactions (including jostling for position at intersections), and recommend advance planning measures.

Critical Infrastructure—Resilient Networks

Which infrastructure is most critical? With limited funds to invest in retrofit, surveillance, and fortification, which facilities are most worth protecting? The technical approach may be applied to point facilities (e.g. hospitals), or linear infrastructure elements such as roads and bridges.

Incident Georeferencing and Response

The emergency is at Marquette Street. The ambulance arrives in minutes ... at Market Street. We design systems to determine incident location, to communicate location unambiguously over digital media, and to post-analyze vehicle GPS tracks for optimal assignment and dispatch.