Dynamic Evacuation Path Searching Considering Capacities of Shelters

Abstract

In the event of a disaster, most of the current evacuation path search algorithms are based on minimizing the travel cost to each shelters. Since the shelters usually have limited capacities, the vehicle evacuation time may be lengthened to search the alternate shelter if the first chosen shelter is full. A new algorithm is presented in this study which will minimize the vehicle evacuation time by searching a shelter with consideration of its capacity. Link based Dijkstra which is most widely used path search algorithm is utilized and the traffic shall be assigned according to the dynamic transportation network load model. The dynamic network loading model is used to express how a group of vehicles is moving an actual network through the moving cell model that best describes the traffic flow characteristics of the group of vehicles. The suggested algorithm is applied to the example traffic to compare the results where the shelter capacity has been considered in determining the path information and the results where it has not been considered. This study observed and concluded that the total vehicle evacuation time is practically reduced where the shelter capacity has been considered in determining the evacuation path.