On-line early warning system for evacuation of socially vulnerable population during flooding

Natural disasters normally find people unprepared and emergency planners are faced with a big task of evacuating people. The response time needed to evacuate people, especially those that are socially vulnerable is very important in saving lives. There exist a number of important factors when planning for an evacuation, e.g. the number of people to be evacuated, time available for the evacuations, the distance to travel and also the available routes for evacuation. The recent flooding in Fredericton has identified that the socially vulnerable population require more resources and emergency planning than the evacuation of the rest of population. The socially vulnerable population needs to be identified before the disaster occurs and their special needs need to be documented. The provisions of medicaments, special food and any additional resources have to be planned and prepared in advance. This paper presents the approach to identify, map and assist the evacuation of the population that is socially vulnerable during floodings in Fredericton while taking care of their special needs. The main result of our research is a web based GIS system that provides appropriate information to the relevant authorities and general public in a timely manner and easy to understand.