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Pedestrian evacuation time maps, flow depth time series, and population estimates for the island of Guam tsunami evacuation zone

September 13, 2023

These datasets support the conclusions in the journal article entitled "Modeling non-structural strategies to reduce pedestrian evacuation times for mitigating local tsunami threats in Guam" as described in the abstract below: Reducing the potential for loss of life from local tsunamis is challenging for emergency managers given the need for self-protective behavior within brief windows of time for at-risk individuals to evacuate. There has been considerable attention paid to discussing the construction of tsunami vertical-evacuation structures for areas where there is insufficient time to evacuate. This strategy may not be feasible for at-risk populations in island communities for multiple reasons. We examine the influence of three non-structural interventions (reducing departure delays, increasing travel speeds, and managing vegetation to create new paths) that may improve the evacuation potential for at-risk individuals in island communities and use the US territory of Guam as our case study. We model pedestrian travel times out of a modeled inundation zone for a local tsunami generated by a Mw 8.3 earthquake within the Mariana subduction zone. Evacuation-modeling results indicate that reducing departure delays has a larger impact than increasing travel speeds or creating evacuation corridors through heavy brush on reducing the number of at-risk individuals with insufficient time to evacuate. Travel times to safety are shorter than lead times of expected wave arrivals for all at-risk individuals in the tsunami-hazard zone if one assumes all three interventions are implemented.

Publication Year 2023
Title Pedestrian evacuation time maps, flow depth time series, and population estimates for the island of Guam tsunami evacuation zone
DOI 10.5066/P93794E6
Authors Jeff Peters, Nathan J Wood, Kwok Fai Cheung, Yoshiki Yamazaki
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Digital Object Identifier Catalog
USGS Organization Western Geographic Science Center - Main Office