MACROSCOPIC FUNDAMENTAL FLOW DIAGRAMS OF A SPIRITUALLY MOTIVATED CROWD

Abstract

Managing and monitoring large crowds pose a challenge to the crowd management authorities. Understanding the crowd dynamics in terms of its macroscopic parameters and its application to assess the maximum number of people likely to gather at a location or the number of people to be allowed to pass a point can go a long way in preventing situations of crowd risk. This paper presents a comparison of the fundamental diagrams of pedestrian flow at different locations of Kumbh mela and brings out differences in the flow patterns between a general crowd and a spiritually motivated crowd. The effect of spiritual motivation is reflected in terms of higher speeds of pedestrians at some locations and continuous flow despite higher densities. These results fill a significant research gap in the literature by highlighting the unique characteristics of spiritual crowd flows that must be incorporated for simulating a realistic crowd.