At the 2013 CAGIS/ASPRS Fall Specialty Conference in San Antonio, TX, a Student Map Competition was conducted amongst teams from across the United States. The University of Florida represented the Florida ASPRS Region in the competition.

The challenge for each team was to apply geospatial tools to predict the location of potential natural hazards and to inform and manage public response. The objective of the competition was to demonstrate an ability to work collaboratively to determine the best methods for (a) developing predicted inundation areas using storm surge predictions and topographic information for the Galveston, Texas area; (b) merging predicted inundation information and evacuation routes to create a map to help the public understand the potential for impact in their geographic area and appropriate evacuation routes from their areas to safe zones. The Galveston area was chosen as the site for this competition based on the large number of hurricane events (21) in this Gulf Coast area from 1900-2010 (See graphic below).
 

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/images/strikes_wgulf.jpg

A three person, University of Florida team comprised of Geography and Geomatics students won first place with its paper entitled “A Novel Approach to Visualization of an Evacuation Map for Hurricane Ike in Galveston County, TX.” By creating an inundation map from elevation data and time series Hurricane Ike storm surge data first, the UF team was able to use the inundation map to create a visually appealing and informative evacuation zone map based on zip code boundaries, landmarks, and times of inundation.

Congratulations to Yin-Hsuen Chen, Stephanie Zick, and Adam Benjamin on their team’s success!