Geospatial analysis of impact on evacuation routes and urban areas in South Texas due to flood events

Layda B. Spor Leal; Jungseok Ho; Sara Davila; Layda B. Spor Leal; Jungseok Ho; Sara Davila

doi:10.3934/urs.2023002

Urban Resilience and Sustainability

2023, Volume 1, Issue 1: 20-36. doi: 10.3934/urs.2023002

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Research article Special Issues

Geospatial analysis of impact on evacuation routes and urban areas in South Texas due to flood events

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, TX 78539, USA

Received: 03 August 2022 Revised: 18 October 2022 Accepted: 28 October 2022 Published: 03 November 2022

The Lower Rio Grande Valley has historically faced a variety of hurricanes and tropical storms that have led to sever flooding. As a consequence, waves of mass evacuation of the local population with the means of transportation occur frequently. While evacuation is encouraged in some cases of disaster, the routing is not always available as water takes to roads and drainage capacities are overwhelmed. In order to dissert the most appropriate evacuation routes, it is necessary to analyze the areas that will be affected in the future based on urban locations, elevation, and historical information. This project utilizes a semi-coupled hydrodynamic modeling approach that combines the overall spectrum of hurricane storm surge and rainfall induced flooding. The combination of models provide data that can be analyzed with Geographical Information Systems to illustrate the severity of flooding. This analysis can be used to denote the location of the affected evacuation routes and an estimation of population affected in various storm scenarios. The estimated results of this project can be used to not only plan future evacuation routes but denote what areas will possibly require road maintenance after certain flooding scenarios.
- emergency evacuation route,
- affected highway coverage and population,
- coastal hurricane storm surge,
- South Texas
Citation: Layda B. Spor Leal, Jungseok Ho, Sara Davila. Geospatial analysis of impact on evacuation routes and urban areas in South Texas due to flood events[J]. Urban Resilience and Sustainability, 2023, 1(1): 20-36. doi: 10.3934/urs.2023002

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Abstract

The Lower Rio Grande Valley has historically faced a variety of hurricanes and tropical storms that have led to sever flooding. As a consequence, waves of mass evacuation of the local population with the means of transportation occur frequently. While evacuation is encouraged in some cases of disaster, the routing is not always available as water takes to roads and drainage capacities are overwhelmed. In order to dissert the most appropriate evacuation routes, it is necessary to analyze the areas that will be affected in the future based on urban locations, elevation, and historical information. This project utilizes a semi-coupled hydrodynamic modeling approach that combines the overall spectrum of hurricane storm surge and rainfall induced flooding. The combination of models provide data that can be analyzed with Geographical Information Systems to illustrate the severity of flooding. This analysis can be used to denote the location of the affected evacuation routes and an estimation of population affected in various storm scenarios. The estimated results of this project can be used to not only plan future evacuation routes but denote what areas will possibly require road maintenance after certain flooding scenarios.

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