Network Analysis Week 2 - Tampa Evacuation Routes

This week it was time to analyze our data from the Prepare Week for the Tampa Evacuation exercise. The objective was to find the closest shelter for residents in specific areas in Tampa. Additional objectives included finding the best routes to supply the Shelters from the Tampa Armory and where and how to best evacuate patients from Tampa General Hospital located on Davis Island.

I learned a lot using the Network Analyst Toolbar and the Network Analyst Window. I created a new Network Dataset and set-up the network using Time (seconds) as the Scaled Cost to be evaluated relative to the route selection. I also used the Flood Zones layer (grid code) to group the Scaled Cost to be evaluated in the route selection. I created additional polygons to form the three sections around the Shelter facilities where residents would evacuate to in the event of flooding. I believe this was the most important message to convey, not that a hospital evacuation nor delivery of needed supplies from the Armory aren't important, it's just that I felt informing thousands of potentially panicking people (the triple "P" threat) where to go for safe shelter seems more important to me. Below is the map I created this week.