Modelling Outputs for Emergency and Evacuation Planning

During emergencies, time is a critical factor in successful outcomes. When producing emergency action plans mapped results of time to peak velocity and time to peak water depth can greatly assist. Time of inundation maps can be produced identifying the time from the start of an event to the depth at which is no longer safe to walk in water, or no longer safe to drive a car for evacuation purposes. This provides triggers for moving to the next stage in an emergency plan. Combining these outputs with duration of flood maps, for given depths, can also provide input into other time related actions; such as planning how long evacuation centres may be required to be operational before it is practical to return to flooded areas.

Where a greater level of detail is needed, such as for roads that operate as evacuation routes, it is also possible to identify the time at which they become cut off. This may be used to determine when pedestrians, cars and emergency vehicles can no longer safely use a road.

Using these time related outputs from risk based flood models we can better prepare emergency and evacuation plans for disaster coordination during a flood.