Optimising egress location in school buildings using mathematical modelling and Agent-Based simulation

Abstract

Effective evacuation strategies in school buildings are critical for ensuring the safety of students and staff during emergencies. Finding appropriate egress locations is an important part of the evacuation planning process. Existing approaches for evacuating schools are based on codified standards without requiring the use of optimisation or simulation, resulting in non-optimal solutions. This study develops a framework that combines mathematical modelling, Building Information Modelling (BIM), and agent-based modelling (ABM) to aid decision makers in planning egress locations for safe evacuation in school buildings. A mixed-integer programming model is used to find optimal egress locations that meet design criteria, which is then integrated with BIM and ABM to provide a comprehensive tool for planning effective egress locations. The simulation approach also evaluates the performance of the proposed egress locations in real-life scenarios. Given the scarcity of research on combining egress location and performance in school buildings, this framework offers a useful approach to improve evacuation planning in school buildings. The results indicate that the proposed approach can improve evacuation time by approximately 10% and reduce total egress configuration costs by 31%.