Prepare for the Apocalypse!

All this talk about zombies in the US has got me thinking.  Are we really ready for a zombie apocalypse?  On October 26, 2007, the city of Austin, TX, released a report that sought to, "determine the sites of zombie resurrection, prepare for the movement of zombies and the subsequent zombie transformations and multiplications, and to determine areas of extreme concern."  To accomplish this, they used GIS, of course!

Where the zombies will come from...

To accomplish such an awesome report, the city states that:

• Cemeteries were selected from the Land Use 2003 data set.
• Zombie movement buffers were created by calculating zombie speed & distance from cemeteries.
• Population density was determined by dissolving Census 2000 block groups into Census 2000 tracts. The population density was then calculated for each tract.
• Areas Of Extreme Concern (see map below) were located by intersecting 1 hour cemetery buffers and the top 5 most populous tracts in the city.

Are you in an area of danger?

While these maps are Austin-specific, you can extrapolate their thought process, buy your own local map, and start making some gruesome discoveries about how much longer shorter you might have left to live once "brainzzzzzz" become the menú del día.

PDF Version of Austin's Awesome Zombie Maps
More great maps from the City of Austin, TX
Disaster Mapping's Zombie Apocalypse insights