Raster Based GIS Conference

Austin, Texas Evacuation: Drive-Time Analysis

Austin, Texas is a vibrant and growing city with booming tech, music, film, and sports industries. The Colorado River runs through the heart of town past a series of bridges and vast parks and recreation areas. Austin is also home to over 1 million people proper in its city limits. The city is bounded by two main north-south highway corridors with shorter intercity freeway systems to accommodate its growing population. These major roadway systems must effectively serve the residents in everyday travel as well as in emergency situations. To ensure the safety of the public, this project will learn through the GIS analysis of publicly available geographic and population data the issue of how long it might take an average resident of the City of Austin to evacuate their residence in the event of such an emergency. In addition, it will demonstrate what major roadways are closest in proximity and visually represent that the majority of Austin residents have a drive of over 20 minutes just to leave the city limits.

About this Student
My GIS experience began in my undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin where I continued my lifelong passion for travel and understanding and reading maps. After my wife and I moved to Colorado to be close to family, I saw this as an excellent opportunity for a career change back to my original passion of Geography and GIS, especially considering the saturation of GIS educational and employment opportunities in Colorado. I am currently enrolled in the GIS Certificate program with three classes left to go and I am involved heavily with the GeoEx Center, the internal GIS organization at FRCC. Through GeoEx, I was able to gain real-world experience with various internships and volunteer opportunities with such organizations as the Mountain Area Land Trust, Denver Regional Council of Governments, Colorado Cattleman’s Agricultural Land Trust, and the Town of Superior. After I receive my certificate, I intend to pursue a position with either a private company or local government in the Denver area to help improve our communities with GIS.