Brigham Young University
BYU ScholarsArchive
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Laboratory Exercise – Determining Evacuation
Route for Deer Creek Dam Failure
Eleise Hinton
Ma! Randall
Brian Packer
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Engineering Applications of GIS - Laboratory Exercises
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Final Project:
Determining Evacuation Route for Deer Creek Dam Failure
CEEn 414 Dr Ames
Eleise Hinton, Matt Randall, Brian Packer
April 24, 2018
Laboratory Exercise – Determining Evacuation Route for
Deer Creek Dam Failure
Background
Deer Creek Reservoir holds a volume of approximately 153,000 acre-ft of water. All of this water
is held back by Deer Creek dam. Below the dam, the Provo River flows through Provo Canyon
and down into Provo before terminating at Utah Lake. While the chance of a dam break is
considered unlikely, an extreme event such as a major earthquake could trigger a break. In the
case of a dam break, residents of Provo who live in the flood path will need to know where to
evacuate. This exercise will create a model to show the nearest evacuation sites for students
residing in select apartment complexes.
Problem Statement
Several models have previously been created by various organizations to show the floodplain
from a Deer Creek Dam break event. In this model, we will use a shapefile of the flood zone
created by the Brigham Young University Geography Department. This shapefile estimates a
flood that fills a 52458-acre area, meaning that if the full amount of water leaves the dam, the
flooded area will be an average of 3 feet deep and likely deeper in the canyon and main part of
Provo.
Anyone within the estimated flood zone will need to evacuate to a safe zone. The city has
already designated several safe areas for people to evacuate to. The distance from the dam to
the mouth of the canyon is 10 miles, so assuming the water is moving a rate of 10 mph, people
will have approximately 1 hour to evacuate from the time of the event. The model in this lab
determines the distance and shortest evacuation route for select apartment complex within the
flood zone.
Figure 1 Flood plain from Deer Creek Reservoir Dam break as estimated by the BYU Geology Department.
Spatial Considerations
A flooding event creates a challenge because the normal road networks will be unavailable once
the flood comes through the valley. In getting people to the nearest emergency zones it is
important to choose a location and route with the shortest total driving distance, but also a
route that travels through the least amount of the flood zone as possible. Because of this
consideration, emergency locations were hand selected when using the network analyst tool as
explained below.
Data
• https://gis.utah.gov/data/health/health-care-facilities/ Follow this link and download the EMS
facilities shapefile to obtain all of the Emergency Medical Services in the state of Utah.
• https://gis.utah.gov/data/boundaries/citycountystate/ Follow this link and download the
County Boundaries shapefile to obtain the boundaries for Utah County
• The Dam Break Flood Zone shapefile can be georeferenced using the image provided in learning
suite
• https://gis.utah.gov/data/sgid-transportation/roads-system/ Follow this link and download the
Roads Centerline shapefile to obtain all the roads for Utah County.
• http://reslife.byu.edu/och/apps/map_lgcomplex.php Follow this link and then click on “Click
here to see the selected Large Complexes Map”. This will take you to Google Map Maker where
you can download the KML data.
ModelBuilder Tools
In this exercise you may use previous tools and will use the following new tools:
• Near tool: calculates the distance of the points, polylines, or polygons within one shapefile to
the closest point, polyline, or polygon within another shapefile.
• KML to Layer tool: converts a google maps file to a shapefile.
• Network Analyst tool: shows the most efficient route from one location to the nearest feature
or to the selected feature.
Example Model
Step by Step Solution
Begin by downloading all the files contained in the Section titled ‘Data’. Make sure all the data is
projected into NAD 1983. The steps below will show how to determine the distance to the
closest emergency area and how to use the network analysis tool to find the best route to take.
Step 1:
First the emergency zone shapefile will need to be modified to take out any safe zone that is
within the flood zone since those areas will no longer be safe. Use the near tool to create a list
of EMS that are around and inside the flood zone.
Figure 2 Using the Near Tool in ModelBuilder
Follow the picture below to create a list inside the EMS shapefile that gives you the distance of
each EMS from the flood zone.
Right click on the EMS shapefile and select attribute table.
Using the list, select the features within 5 miles and right-click on the EMS file and choose the
selection option > Create Layer from Selected Feature (as outlined in the image below).
Then do the same thing for the EMS inside the flood zone (aka the ones listed as a near distance
of 0). Color each point differently to easily differentiate between zone within the flood zone,
within 5 miles, and outside the 5 mile range.
Step 2:
KML files, which are produced by Google Map files, are not able to be directly imported to
ArcMap. To import the points of the Large Apartment Complexes, open the KML to Layer tool
and add the Large Complexes KML file as the input. Then select the destination where the file
will be saved.
Step 3:
In the Geodatabase create a new Feature Dataset. In that new dataset, import all the shapefiles
necessary to create the evacuation routes. These shapefiles include roads, apartment
complexes, and the emergency services areas. From that new Feature Dataset, then create a
new Network Analyst.
Next, turn on the Network Analyst Extension and add the Network Analyst toolbar to the screen.
After the Network Analyst toolbar has been added create a new route. In the new route table
click on “stops” and then “create network location” from the toolbar. The starting and ending
locations are both designated as stops.
Pick the location of two apartment complexes you would like to create an evacuation route and
then the final destination of the evacuation route. Using “create new network location” select
the starting and finishing locations of the evacuation route. After the two points are selected
click on “solve” on the network analyst toolbar. This then produces the shortest route between
the two locations. To obtain verbal directions click on “directions window” in the network
analyst toolbar. The following four pictures show how to complete the Network Analysis.
Deliverables
Deliver a map showing emergency medical services within 5 miles of the flood zone with their
distances in miles from the flood zone labeled. Also, clearly identify emergency medical services
that are inside the flood zone, within 5 miles of the flood zone, and outside the 5 miles radius of
the flood zone.
References
gis.utah.gov/data/ - for the county & road shapefiles and the emergency medical service
locations.
Example Map
Rubric for Determining the Evacuation Route for Deer Creek Dam Failure
Item
Points
Assignment Title, Author Name Date, Course Name /5
Brief summary of the requirements of the project and why this might be useful /5
Describe your model
• List each of the tools used (2 pts)
• List tool settings applied for the analysis (2 pts)
• List all input, intermediate, and output datasets (2 pts)
• Describe each input dataset including type (point, line, polygon, raster)
and the source of the data (2 pts)
• Describe each output dataset (point, line, polygon, raster) (2 pts)
/10
• One or more full pages (8.5x11) showing your model (5 pts)
• All text is readable (10 point font minimum) (3 pts)
• All tools and data sets are shown (2 pts)
/10
• How does your delineated stream compare to the online data? How
does the watershed boundary compare to the terrain visible in a
basemap? (3 pts)
• Are your results as expected or did you find anything interesting or
different than expected? (2 pts)
/5
Make a full page (8.5x11) map showing the results of your watershed analysis.
• Map Title (1 pt)
• Neat Line (1 pt)
• North Arrow (1 pt)
• Scale Bar (1 pt)
• Text box with author name, date, map projection (1 pt)
• Flood zone boundary, emergency safety zones, apartment complexes,
and routes shown (1 pt)
• Each data set clearly symbolized (1 pt)
• Visible basemap showing underlying terrain data (1 pt)
• Labels indicating available versus unavailable emergency safety zones
(1 pt)
• Zoomed to an appropriate scale for viewing analysis results (1 pt)
• All text is legible on printed map (1 pt)
/15
Bonus Task: Repeat the lab exercise with a different set of data. Include in your
report what data you used, how you acquired it, what, if anything, you changed
to complete the exercise work. Also include an additional full page map
showing your results.
