Metadata-based Needs Assessment for Emergency Transportation Operations with a Focus on an Aging Population: A Case Study in Florida

Abstract

In the aftermath of disasters, evacuating aging victims and maintaining an optimal flow of critical resources in order to serve their needs becomes problematic, especially for Gulf Coast states in the USA such as Florida, where more than 6.9 million (36.9%) of the population are over age 50. Scanning the literature, there is no substantial prior work that has synthesized the requirements for a multi-modal emergency needs assessment that could facilitate the safe and accessible evacuation of aging people, and optimize the flow of resources into the affected region to satisfy the needs of those who remain. This paper presents a review of the aging populationfocused emergency literature utilizing a knowledge base development methodology supported with a geographic information system-based case study application set in Florida. Importance is given to both ensuring the resiliency of the transportation infrastructure and meeting the needs of aging populations. As a result of this metadata-based analysis, critical research needs and challenges are presented with planning recommendations and future research directions. Results clearly indicate that transportation agencies should focus on clear and fast dissemination of disaster-related information to the aging populations. The use of paratransit services for evacuating aging people, especially those living independently and/or in rural areas, is also found to be of paramount importance.

Special needs hurricane shelters and the ageing population: development of a methodology and a case study application

“…The vulnerability of populations to hurricane hazards is shaped by a number of personal characteristics and environmental factors, including the strength of a storm, the health and socioeconomic status of people, and their means of available transportation (Cutter, Boruff, and Shirley, 2003;Finch, Emrich, and Cutter, 2010;Ozguven et al, 2015). Older adults may be affected by, for instance, impaired physical mobility, diminished sensory awareness, pre-existing health conditions, physical frailty and social isolation, and functional and cognitive disability (Mayhorn, 2005;Burnett, Dyer, and Pickins, 2007;Jenkins, Laska, and Williamson, 2007;McGuire, Ford, and Okoro, 2007).…”

Aging Population–Focused Accessibility Assessment of Multimodal Facilities in Florida

“…There are also studies of aging mobility or other vulnerable populations under emergency situations such as disaster evacuations. See Ozguven et al for a more detailed discussion on the emergency transportation needs of aging populations (19). In the aftermath of the Los Angeles Northridge Earthquake in 1991, for example, the accessibility of nursing homes was investigated both for the aging and general populations (20).…”

Construction of an evacuee placement model for tsunami shelters considering physical distancing to prevent COVID-19 infection

“…It is important to identify high-risk disaster zones to enable safe evacuation before a disaster occurs [ 40 ]. One case study examined safe evacuation of elderly people and the securing of a transportation infrastructure to meet their needs [ 30 ]. Previous studies have also estimated human damage to tsunami vertical evacuation shelters using buffer analysis [ 4 ], and have constructed models for proper shelter placement [ 20 ].…”