The original data came from the Pacific Disaster Center and was created as follows (text written by Pacific Disaster Center staff, 1998):
Tsunami evacuation layers for the State were digitized from Tsunami Evacuation Zone proof maps provided by the State of Hawaii Civil Defense, and published in County Telephone Directories by GTE in 1991. These maps were produced by the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, at the University of Hawaii, in cooperation with the State of Hawaii Civil Defense System. Data from these maps were digitized in the GIS program Arc View Version 3.0a using features from island coastlines, roads, and the USGS 7.5 minute digital raster graphics (DRGs). Specific distances given on the maps (for example: "1900 feet from Farrington Highway") were incorporated into the digitization. Where no distances were given, evacuation zone boundaries were estimated by topographical characteristics, or approximated using surrounding features such as roads. In cases where evacuation zone boundaries bordered roadways, selected roads from state DLG road layer were extracted into the tsunami evacuation shape file for accuracy. No details of scale accompanied the paper proofs.
Coastline and evacuation zone shape files for each island were then made into coverages using ArcInfo Version 7.1.2, which were subsequently appended into a single coverage for editing. Arcedit was used to eliminate all dangling nodes, intersections, etc. Tolerances were set to minimize the alteration of zone boundaries. Topology was built for each island, polygons labeled, and polygon attribute tables created. Each polygon is associated with a particular evacuation map, with the exception of two polygons on Oahu maps which are areas of high ground (map #7), and water (maps # 18-19) within evacuation zones. A coverage for the State was created from appended individual island coverages in ArcInfo.
NOTE: It came to the attention of the persons working on this project that many place names on the paper proof maps have incorrect spelling. In addition, there are populated areas near sea level that are not included in any of the present maps. Two examples on Maui are Maliko Bay, and Kahakuloa Bay.