Agent-Based Simulation of Labour Emergency Evacuation in High-Rise Building Construction Sites

Abstract

Construction sites are vulnerable to natural and manmade disasters that impose direct threat to contractor employers. High-rise building projects are more critical in such emergency situations because of the need to evacuate a large number of laborers who are working on the different floors of the building. Occupational safety regulations require general contractors to establish employee emergency action plans that specify emergency evacuation procedures and escape route assignments. These emergency plans are usually evaluated and practiced using real life drills, which face some critical challenges related to egress practicality and changing construction environment, especially in high-rise building construction sites. To overcome these challenges, this paper presents a conceptual agent-based simulation framework that would support general contractors in evaluating labour emergency evacuation plans in high-rise building construction projects. The framework is designed to facilitate: 1) modelling of construction activities workspaces that represent the number and locations of activities crews; 2) representing labour egress behaviour using software autonomous agents; 3) modelling of the physical space and evacuation routes of the building; and 4) evaluating the performance of emergency action plans. The proposed framework should prove useful to general contractors and public safety officials in effectively analyzing emergency action plans.