00Hazardous emergency decisions
Project 1: An explosive situation in Springfield, Virginia
Name:
Date:
Problem
Q1)
What geographic area are you studying?
In Fairfax County in Springfield, Virginia. The incident happened on the convergence
of Interstates 95 and 495 (a heavily traveled interstate).
Q2)
What decisions do you need to make?
Decisions that need to be made are identifying evacuation zones, buffer zones away
from the hazardous material spilled on the interstate, how and where the hazardous
material should be handled, an estimate of the number of households to evacuate,
affected areas, traffic analysis designating detours for vehicles, possible locations for
shelters for evacuees, and a helicopter landing site.
Q3)
What information would help you make the decisions?
Information that would help me make these decisions would be the exact location
(GPS coordinates) of where the spill happened, we would also need a specific
minimal “safe” distance of the hazardous material to determine buffer zone, we
would also need to know the locations of schools and possible locations for
evacuation shelters, as well as traffic data on those interstates to determine detours
and also fast lanes for first responders to get to the area and assess cleanup and
evacuation tasks.
Q4)
Who are the key stakeholders for this issue? (This step is important.
You need to know the audience for your analysis to help decide how to
present your results.)
Key stakeholders in this are the first responders who need this information to carry
our evacuation protocols, detours, as well as cleanup. This information would also be
presented to state officials who are in charge of emergencies in the state so that,
cleanup and evacuation protocols can be improved on in a situation that could arise in
the future.
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Examine the data
Q5) View the item descriptions for these features and complete the following
table.
Layer
bldg
aerial
Publication
Information:
Who
Created
the Data?
Fairfax
County, VA
U.S.
Geological
Survey
Time
Period
Data Are
Relevant
Spatial Horizontal Coordinate System
Data
Type
Resolution
for
Rasters
Attribute
Values
2007
NAD_1983_StatePlane_Virginia_North_FIPS_4501
Vector
N/A
Raster
0.3 meters
Building
attributes
N/A
2002
NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_18N
Organize and document your work
Create a process summary
Use a simple text document for your process summary. Keep adding to it as you do your
work to avoid forgetting any steps.
Analysis
Step 1: Create a basemap of Fairfax County
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Step 2: Identify the incident and isolate areas of concern
Q6)
How many single-family residences are in the danger area?
1059 single-family residences in the danger area.
Q7)
Where are the residential buildings located?
Within the 0.5 mile buffer zone.
Q8)
Which school would work best as a designated shelter for the people
evacuated in the southeast quadrant?
Robert E. Lee High School.
Q9)
Which school would work best as a designated shelter for the people
evacuated in the southwest quadrant?
Crestwood Elementary School.
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Step 3: Map detours and best routes to shelters
Q10) Route 1: Which road(s) is (are) being closed by these two stops?
(Purple) Route 1 = 3.5 miles. The 395, and the 95.
Q11) Route 2: Which road is being closed by these two stops?
(Green) Route 2 = 3.8 miles. The 95
Q12) Route 3: Which road is being closed by these two stops?
(Yellow) Route 3 = 9.2 miles. The 495 (Capital Beltway)
Deliverable 3A
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Deliverable 3B
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Presentation
There are many ways, ranging from simple to advanced, that you can use to prepare a
presentation. Whatever method of presentation you choose has to include a report
documenting your analysis and addressing how you identified the evacuation shelters, road
intersections to be closed, and the detour routes. You must explain the spatial patterns you
see and describe the implications of your calculations and analysis for this problem. As you
work through this book, try to use different types of presentation media. Pick the presentation
medium that best fits your audience. Remember that your audience probably lacks your indepth knowledge of GIS, so you will need to communicate your results in a way they will be
able to understand and use.
Listed below are various presentation formats:

Create a text document with inserted maps.

Show your findings in a digital slide presentation.

Use ArcGIS Explorer Desktop, which is a free, downloadable GIS viewer that
provides an easy way to explore, visualize, share, and present geographic
information. This software can be downloaded at:
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/explorer/download.html

Embed interactive maps in your text documents. These maps can also be shared with
others. The links below provide information about this tool:
http://www.esri.com/software/mapping_for_everyone/index.html
http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/apis/javascript/arcgis/index.cfm?fa=home

Create layer packages or map packages and share your maps with your classmates.
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
Use ArcGIS Explorer Online to produce an interactive online geospatial presentation
that can be shared.
http://www.arcgis.com/home/
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