Emergency management capacity assessment for urban rail transit—an example of Beijing Metro Line 13

Abstract

Abstract In order to improve the emergency management capability of urban rail transit system and reduce accidents during metro operation, an emergency management capability evaluation method combining analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is proposed. Based on the Prevention Preparation Response Recovery (PPRR) model, factors influencing the emergency management capability of the urban rail transit system are summarized from the perspective of ‘human, machine, environment and management’. Then, an emergency management capability evaluation index system containing of 20 secondary indicators is constructed in four stages: emergency prevention, emergency preparation, emergency response and emergency recovery. The weights of indicators are calculated using the AHP method, and the closeness of each indicator to the optimal solution is analysed with the TOPSIS method. Finally, take the Beijing Metro Line 13 as an example to investigate the level of emergency management capability of urban rail transit. The results show that the emergency management capability of Beijing's urban rail transit system is ‘well’, among which hazard prevention measures (0.31) and emergency response team (0.34) have a greater weight on the emergency management capability of rail transit. The model can more accurately assess the emergency management capability of urban rail transit and provide a basis for emergency management.