Flood Zone Mapping Project
Background Information:
Coastal areas are heavily developed in New Jersey placing pressure on emergency managers to prepare for evacuating residents during a Hurricane or other storm. GIS is a
planning tool to help prepare, respond, and mitigate the effects of natural disasters.
Target Audience:
Town officials have invited you to present at one of their meetings to demonstrate the use and benefits of GIS for storm planning. The town is concerned with flooding and want to know which areas will flood from a 1% Annual Chance Flood, also commonly referred to as a 100–year flood. The town wants to review evacuation routes and would like a recommendation for shelter locations.
Work Outline:
Project Goal: A Category 2 Hurricane is approaching New Jersey. Identify which areas could flood during this storm, and estimate the population affected. Determine the
placement of potential shelters and identify the best evacuation routes. Data Provided: Basemap data for the project is in the Files section of Canvas for ENVR– 126 then “FloodProject” folder. These are zipped shapefiles and can be uploaded in any GIS application including ArcGIS Pro. Potential features to sketch: Evacuation routes, Food and Water drop locations, properties to recommend for preservations, road closures, pollution issues. (You do not need to create all of these layers, pick 2 of these or other feature ideas to add points of interest to the map.)
Project Timeline:
The project will start March 22nd 2022, and is expected to take 2 class lab sessions, due March 29th.
Project Deliverables:
A presentation (PowerPoint, Google Slides, etc.) like the following:
Slide 1 – Title slide (your name, town etc.)
Slide 2 – Map of the town, zoom into the extents of the town selected. Add the MunicipalBoundary layer to show the political boundaries.
Slide 3 – Map of the FEMA_FloodZones in your town.
Slide 4 – Map showing the Population according to the Census Blocks in 2020 Change the appearance of the layer and identify a polygon that may be affected by flooding. Field named “Pop100” contains the Total Population for that Block Group
Slide 5 – Map of Shelter locations and other facilities such as School Property, Hospitals, Fire and First Aid Stations. Are any of these facilities in a Flood Zone?
Slide 6 – Map of features your team would recommend to the citizens and officials in your town. Examples: Field stations, flooded and proposed evacuation routes…
Last Slide – Conclusions of your project evaluating the use of GIS in emergency management within your town during major flood events. List any recommendations you have for the town officials on how to improve evacuation routes, prepare shelters or identify areas and houses in the flood plain that should be returned to a natural state
