Information Propagation that Induces Evacuation Behavior at the Time of Disaster

Abstract

It is important to promptly inform residents about the information on disasters such as sediment disasters and make evacuation quickly. For three years, starting from fiscal 2016, while receiving support for contract research of SCOPE (Strategic Information and Communications R&D Promotion Programme) of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in Japan, Hiroshima City University and KDDI Research Inc. had researched and developed the Grass-roots Information Distribution System using mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) that residents autonomously predict the occurrence of the disasters and its occurrence and promptly propagate disaster information. In the Grass-roots Information Distribution System, mobile terminals such as smartphones owned by residents are used, and the MANET is constructed using the Bluetooth communication function installed in those terminals. In an event of a large-scale disaster such as a sediment disaster in which public communication services such as a cellular phone service are disrupted, the Grass-roots Information Distribution System notifies residents of disaster and evacuation information via the MANET. Even if the public communication services are suspended, the Grass-roots Information Distribution System becomes possible to propagate disaster and evacuation information to be notified to residents through the MANET. The Grass-roots Information Distribution System aims to minimize human injury due to disasters by evacuating residents promptly. However, some residents, such as elderly people and children, who do not own smartphones, they are not able to receive disaster and evacuation information promptly. Furthermore, even if disaster and evacuation information were received, the problem that few people only took evacuate action became clear. In this paper, we consider information propagation to induce evacuation behavior at the time of disaster through research and development of the Grass-roots Information Distribution System.