Texas Sustainable and Resilient Planning Atlases
About the Atlases
Our atlases are online mapping tools designed as spatial decision support systems. They provide detailed data on hazards, the built environment and population demographics. This information can support community and individual hazard planning.
Our goal is to allow people to review data and create custom maps based on hazard, social and built environment data sets. These maps can visualize physical and social vulnerability information to local stakeholders. We hope the atlases will help answer important questions such as:
- Where are mitigation activities most needed?
- Which neighborhoods face the most hazard risks?
- Where should future growth occur within the Texas coastal zone to reduce hazard risk?
The atlas research began with the Texas Sustainable Coastal Initiative as a joint partnership with the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center and the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores through the Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities. It was supported by funds from various agencies including NSF, NOAA/TX Sea Grant, FEMA/USACE, TX General Land Office, and Coastal Services Center/NOAA.
Using the Atlases
We often train community partners on how to use the atlas and can add unique data if it is available. We have also worked directly with community members as they completed a planning task using the atlas information.
If you have questions about the atlas, want training, or are interested in adding other data, please contact us at hrrc@arch.tamu.edu.
Hurricane Evacuation Zone Planning
The HRRC works with county emergency operations centers for counties on the Texas coast to develop hurricane evacuation plans. A critical component of those plans are determination of hurricane evacuation zones.
Hurricane evacuation zones can be used to:
- Address life safety issues related to hurricane surge risk
- Facilitate effective communication to diverse populations
- Help households and individuals to understand their residential location relative to Potential hurricane storm surge risk
- Empower local emergency management to plan for hurricane and tropical storm threats
- Mobilize local populations to evacuate during imminent threats
Development of evacuation zones is a critical component of evacuation planning for any community. Further, these new zones set the framework for later vulnerability and transportation analysis.
Completed studies
Hurricane Evacuation Study Rio Grande Valley Atlas
Completed in 2015, this study helped develop hurricane evacuation zones for the valley study area, including Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties.
Hurricane Evacuation Study Texas Coastal Bend Atlas
Completed in 2019, this study helped develop hurricane evacuation zones for the coastal bend study area, including Aransas, Calhoun, Kleberg, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio and Victoria counties.