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Louisiana Department of Natural Resources Fuel Demand Estimation Report

The NIMSAT Institute at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette researched and developed a Fuel Demand Estimation model for the Louisiana’s Department of Natural Resources. During hurricane evacuation, it is important for the emergency managers to understand the fuel demand along various evacuation routes. An understanding of fuel demand along evacuation routes would enable emergency managers to inform gas stations owners ahead of time and position refueling trucks along evacuation routes that are likely to have fuel deficit and conduct a smooth and effective evacuation.

The Evacuation Fuel Demand Model (EFDM) discussed in this report provides an overview of the methodology, analysis and preliminary results for estimating evacuation traffic and fuel demand. Among many different analysis required for developing this methodology to estimate
fuel demand, the evacuation model is probably one of the most important components. The discussed approach brings together inputs on the hurricane track and intensity, the evacuation transportation network, evacuation population and their behavior, fuel demand estimation
from evacuation traffic. A discussion on the results of expected fuel demand for the model and how it can be applied during an evacuation scenario is discussed through an example evacuation scenario for hurricane Gustav.This report also discusses our investigations approaches to obtain situational awareness through real-time traffic monitoring from Automatic Traffic Recorders and video cameras.

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