Hurricane Evacuation Decision-Support Model for Bus Dispatch

According to the National Hurricane Center, the int ensity of hurricanes seasons is expected to increas e for the next decade. Thus, national, state, and local governments need to have a well-engineered evacuation plan to reduce the consequences of natural disaster s. Coastal cities in particular must be prepared t o respond to evacuate its populations as well as to p rovide necessary assistance pre- and post a hurrica ne hitting the local area. Rita, Katrina, and Wilma p ut to the test existing government’s evacuation pla ns, and proved them inadequate, especially more so when using public transportation. Thus, the government plans need to be reviewed, analyzed, and improved, but many local governments lack the tools to evalua te different scenarios and develop a detailed public t ransportation plan before a hurricane warning has b een issued. This project sought to develop a scalable and flexible deterministic evacuation decision-supp ort model to assist Miami-Dade county officials in esta blishing evacuation strategies. This is a first st ep in developing a comprehensive decision support systems that will enable decision makes to maximize the number of people evacuated in case of hurricane thr eat.