Large-scale Evacuation: The Analysis, Modeling, and Management of Emergency Relocation from Hazardous Areas

Large-Scale Evacuation introduces the reader to the steps involved in evacuation modelling for towns and cities, from understanding the hazards that can require large-scale evacuations, through understanding how local officials decide to issue evacuation advisories and households decide whether to comply, to transportation simulation and traffic management strategies. The author team has been recognized internationally for their research and consulting experience in the field of evacuations. Collectively, they have 125 years of experience in evacuation, including more than 140 projects for federal and state agencies.

The text explains how to model evacuations that use the road transportation network by combining perspectives from social scientists and transportation engineers, fields that have commonly approached evacuation modelling from distinctly different perspectives. In doing so, it offers a step-by-step guide through the key questions needed to model an evacuation and its impacts to the evacuation route system as well as evacuation management strategies for influencing demand and expanding capacity. The authors also demonstrate how to simulate the resulting traffic and evacuation management strategies that can be used to facilitate evacuee movement and reduce unnecessary demand. Case studies, which identify key points to analyze in an evacuation plan, discuss evacuation termination and re-entry, and highlight challenges that someone developing an evacuation plan or model should expect, are also included.

This textbook will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, and advanced students.

Michael K. Lindell is Emeritus Professor at the Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center at Texas A&M University and is Affiliate Professor at the Institute for Hazard Mitigation Planning and Research at University of Washington.

Pamela Murray-Tuite is Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Clemson University.

Brian Wolshon is the Edward A. and Karen Wax Schmitt Distinguished Professor and Director of the Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency at Louisiana State University.

Earl J. Baker is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Geography at Florida State University.