A Corridor-Based Earthquake Evacuation Model

Abstract

The earthquake happened in Wenchuan, Sichuan, province on May 12, 2008, resulted in a tremendous loss of property and lives. Emergency evacuation and transfer are so important that government should give them high priority. The emergency evacuation corridor planning will be more significant for restoration of disaster areas. This paper proposes a methodology for the carrying capability of regional earthquake evacuation corridors based on macro-simulation and to prove the availability and rationality of a predetermined regional earthquake evacuation plan. The proposed approach includes three processes: 1) Estimate the evacuation demand of earthquake affected area; 2) Confirm the OD-pairs based on the location of shelter and the preplanned direction of evacuation; 3) Build up the earthquake evacuation network through the macro-simulation software OREMS as well as input the outcome of procedures 1 and 2. Meanwhile, the carrying capability of preplanned regional earthquake evacuation corridor through evacuation clearance time and average evacuation speed are the output of OREMS. In the end, the proposed approach was employed in the Beijing case and proved the availability and rationality of Beijing earthquake evacuation corridor planning. Criterion for selecting the earthquake evacuation road and the methodology for searching availability and rationality of earthquake evacuation corridor planning are proposed in this paper.