Dynamic Plume Modeling and Real-Time Routing

E mergency response deals with the reaction to a natural or man-made disaster and involves containing the disaster situation. The process is time-critical because many lives depend on how quickly and accurately emergency responders make decisions. During an emergency response, emergency operations centers (EOCs) face different problems depending on the category the emergency falls under (fire, earthquake, biochemical attack, hazardous chemical release, or hurricane, for example1). Our project at the University of Texas at Dallas targeted one class of problems — those that arise when a hazardous, airborne chemical is released into an inhabited area. Current software applications can model this gas release on a map with a plume — that is, a plot between the chemical concentration in the air and the distance from an accident site, which is essentially a set of polygons — but these plumes are static and don’t consider the wind and its dynamic nature. With a change in wind direction and speed, a toxic plume changes shape and extent. To address this problem, we utilized the Arial Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres (Aloha) software to model the wind’s dynamic aspects and produce a real-time plume that’s dynamic in nature. Our model also shows the plume’s trail as it moves with the changing wind speed and direction. By incorporating the plume into a geo-