Emergency Evacuation Plan Research Articles

Exact and heuristic solution algorithms for efficient emergency evacuation in areas with vulnerable populations

Proper emergency evacuation planning is a key to ensure safety and efficiency of transportation networks in the event of approaching natural hazards. A sound evacuation plan can save human lives and avoid congestion. In order to develop effective emergency evacuation plans, this study presents a mixed-integer programming model that assigns individuals, including vulnerable population groups, to emergency shelters through evacuation routes during the available time periods. The objective of the mathematical model is to minimize the total travel time of individuals leaving an evacuation zone. Unlike many emergency evacuation models presented in the literature, the proposed mathematical model directly accounts for the effects of socio-demographic characteristics of evacuees, evacuation route characteristics, driving conditions, and traffic characteristics on the travel time of evacuees. An exact optimization approach and a set of heuristic approaches are applied to yield solutions for the developed model. The numerical experiments are conducted for emergency evacuation of Broward County (Florida, United States). The results show that the exact optimization approach cannot tackle the large-size problem instances. On the other hand, the proposed heuristic algorithms are able to provide good-quality solutions within a reasonable computational time. Therefore, the developed mathematical model and heuristic algorithms can further assist the appropriate agencies with efficient and timely emergency evacuation planning.

Gender and Public Health Emergency Preparedness Among United States Adults.

Public health emergency preparedness can improve a community's ability to cope health outcomes associated with environmental disasters and complex emergencies. Previous studies of gender and preparedness have yielded mixed results. The objective of this study was to examine the association between gender and public health emergency preparedness among U.S. adults using data from the behavioral risk factors surveillance system (BRFSS). Data was analyzed from the 2006-2012 BRFSS for 96,137 adults from 10 states. Three self-reported preparedness behaviors were evaluated: household preparedness (3-day supply of water, 3-day supply of food, battery-operated radio, and flashlight), emergency evacuation plan, and 3-day supply of medication. Multivariable log-binomial regression was used to estimate associations between gender and each preparedness behavior. Gender-specific regression analyses were also conducted to identify determinants of public health emergency preparedness. After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, women were less likely to report household preparedness (PR 0.71, 95% CI 0.67-0.75) and a 3-day supply of medication (PR 0.89, 95% CI 0.79-0.99) than men. Among women, being divorced, widowed or separated (PR 0.84, 95% CI 0.71, 1.00) and living in a household with children (PR 0.84, 95% CI 0.77, 0.92) was inversely associated with reported household preparedness. This study adds to the epidemiology literature regarding gender and preparedness behaviors in the United States. Future investigations are warranted to confirm these findings and inform practices aimed at improving public health emergency preparedness.

STUDENTS’ AWARENESS ON THE SAFETY FEATURES OF THE UNIVERSITY IN RESPONSE TO EARTHQUAKE

Everyone must prepare and be aware on how to act in any emergency so that nothing will be taken by surprise. Just like an Earthquake, where it always strikes when least expected. Earthquake can happen anywhere- at home, work or school. Awareness on the different Safety Features of the University is important for each student for them to know on what they are going to do, and where they will go in an event of an Earthquake. The study utilized the descriptive survey approach method and takes placed at University of Cebu Lapu-lapu and Mandaue. The study adapted a researcher-made questionnaire which was patterned after the University’s Emergency Evacuation Plan and Building Code of the Philippines. The researchers equally distributed the number of respondents per course. Majority of the respondents are within the age of 15-20 years old, female and in their 4th year level. The result showed that the respondents are aware of the different safety features of the University, However, when it comes to the awareness of the Evacuation Exit and Area it revealed that the respondents are not aware of their specific area. The researchers recommend that the findings of this study will be submitted to the UCLM Safety Team Department, which will serve as a basis for report.

Efficient multi-vehicle navigation based on trajectory vector features considering non-uniform destination distribution for emergency evacuation

In recent years, large-scale events have been held frequently, and more and more people are participating in these activities. When encountering an emergency, it is necessary to quickly evacuate the participating people. A reasonable traffic evacuation plan is an important part of the efficient evacuation. However, the uneven geographical distribution of a large number of vehicles and participants poses a challenge for efficient evacuation planning. An efficient emergency evacuation plan needs to minimise evacuation time and traffic congestion. Reasonable route selection and traffic flow assessment are key to the evacuation plan. In this paper, we propose an efficient multi-vehicle navigation method based on trajectory vector features considering non-uniform destination distribution for emergency evacuation. First, we employ the CrossRank algorithm to extract the real-time state vector of roads and then navigate the vehicle based on these state vectors. In addition, spatial diversity theory is introduced into our model for the non-uniform distribution of multiple vehicle evacuation. We conduct a series of multi-vehicle navigation simulation experiment on a real taxi trajectory data set. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach is effective and efficient.

Efficient multi-vehicle navigation based on trajectory vector features considering non-uniform destination distribution for emergency evacuation

In recent years, large-scale events have been held frequently, and more and more people are participating in these activities. When encountering an emergency, it is necessary to quickly evacuate the participating people. A reasonable traffic evacuation plan is an important part of the efficient evacuation. However, the uneven geographical distribution of a large number of vehicles and participants poses a challenge for efficient evacuation planning. An efficient emergency evacuation plan needs to minimise evacuation time and traffic congestion. Reasonable route selection and traffic flow assessment are key to the evacuation plan. In this paper, we propose an efficient multi-vehicle navigation method based on trajectory vector features considering non-uniform destination distribution for emergency evacuation. First, we employ the CrossRank algorithm to extract the real-time state vector of roads and then navigate the vehicle based on these state vectors. In addition, spatial diversity theory is introduced into our model for the non-uniform distribution of multiple vehicle evacuation. We conduct a series of multi-vehicle navigation simulation experiment on a real taxi trajectory data set. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach is effective and efficient.

Modelling building emergency evacuation plans considering the dynamic behaviour of pedestrians using agent-based simulation

Many people die every year in emergency situations due to the absence of efficient evacuation plans. Not having an adequate action plan implies high evacuation times that can put lives at risk. Usually, people do not follow the safety signs during unsafe conditions; they react unexpectedly due to the panic and the anxiety to quickly evacuate the place. The evacuation plans commonly indicate a specific exit route and do not consider the possibility of proposing alternative routes in case of blockages or high congestion. This research aims to design an evacuation plan considering aspects of pedestrian behaviour and multiple routing strategies. A combined agent-based discrete choice modelling approach was chosen to represent the heterogeneity in people’s behaviour and the interaction between them and the environment. The proposed evacuation plan incorporates specific signalling to encourage people taking alternatives routes when given paths are congested. The new plan also highlights the necessity to create new emergency exits and to modify the current structure of the building.

Emergency evacuation problem for a multi-source and multi-destination transportation network: mathematical model and case study

Disasters such as earthquake or tsunami can easily take the lives of thousands of people and millions worth of property in a fleeting moment. A successful emergency evacuation plan is critical in response to disasters. In this paper, we seek to investigate the multi-source, multi-destination evacuation problem. First, we construct a mixed integer linear programming model. Second, based on K shortest paths and user equilibrium, we propose a novel algorithm (hereafter KPUE), whose complexity is polynomial in the numbers of nodes and evacuees. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of algorithm KPUE by a real evacuation network in Shanghai, China. The numerical examples show that the average computation time of the proposed algorithm is 95% less than that of IBM ILOG CPLEX solver and the optimality gap is no more than 5%.

Optimizing evacuation efficiency under emergency with consideration of social fairness based on a cell transmission model.

Traffic assignment and management objectives are considered as two significant parts in developing the emergency evacuation plan, which can directly influence the evacuation performance and efficiency. From the perspective of disaster response operators, the evacuation objective frequently is to minimize the total evacuation time to reduce losses, which may lead to an unreasonable and unfair phenomenon where people in highest risk areas may be forced to sacrifice their priorities of evacuation to improve the system evacuation efficiency. In this paper, considering both efficiency and social fairness in emergency evacuation, a weight function consisting of risk evaluation index as variable and the emphasis degree of managers on social fairness principle as coefficient was initially proposed and embedded in system optimal (SO) objective function. Combining the weight function and other constraints based on an extended cell transmission model (CTM), the linear program (LP) model was established to realize the simulation of dynamic traffic assignment in emergency evacuation. Employing this model, the impact of the management strategy of balancing both efficiency and social fairness on evacuation results was studied in the “Tianjin Explosions” case. In the end, the conclusion of “balancing social fairness is valuable during evacuation” was obtained.

Emergency evacuation planning in natural disasters under diverse population and fleet characteristics

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to formulate and solve a new emergency evacuation planning problem. This problem addresses the needs of both able and disabled persons who are evacuated from multiple pick-up locations and transported using a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles. Design/methodology/approach The problem is formulated using a mixed integer linear programming model and solved using a heuristic algorithm. The authors analyze the selected heuristic with respect to key parameters and use it to address theoretical and practical case studies. Findings Evacuating people with disabilities has a significant impact on total evacuation time, due to increased loading/unloading times. Additionally, increasing the number of large capacity vehicles adapted to transport individuals with disabilities benefits total evacuation time. Research limitations/implications The mathematical model is of high complexity and it is not possible to obtain exact solutions in reasonable computational times. The efficiency of the heuristic has not been analyzed with respect to optimality. Practical implications Solving the problem by a heuristic provides a fast solution, a requirement in emergency evacuation cases, especially when the state of the theater of the emergency changes dynamically. The parametric analysis of the heuristic provides valuable insights in improving an emergency evacuation system. Social implications Efficient population evacuation studied in this work may save lives. This is especially critical for disabled evacuees, the evacuation of whom requires longer operational times. Originality/value The authors consider a population that comprises able and disabled individuals, the latter with varying degrees of disability. The authors also consider a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles, which perform multiple trips during the evacuation process.

BIM-GIS ORIENTED INTELLIGENT KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY

Abstract. Urban and population growth results in increasing pressure on the public utilities like transport, energy, healthcare services, crime management and emergency services in the realm of smart city management. Smart management of these services increases the necessity of dealing with big data which is come from different sources with various types and formats like 3D city information, GPS, traffic, mobile, Building Information Model (BIM), environmental, social activities and IoT stream data. Therefore, an approach to mine/analysis/interpret these data and extract useful knowledge from this diverse big data sources emerges in order to extract the hidden pattern of data using computational algorithms from statistics, machine learning and information theory. However, inconsistency, duplication and repetition and misconducting with the different type of discrete and continuous data can cause erroneous decision-making. This paper focuses on providing a rules extraction and supervised-decision making methods for facilitating the fusion of BIM and 2D and 3D GIS-based information coupling with IoT stream data residing in a spatial database and 3D BIM data. The proposed methods can be used in those applications like Emergency Response, Evacuation Planning, Occupancy Mapping, and Urban Monitoring to Smart Multi-Buildings so that their input data mostly come from 2D and 3D GIS, BIM and IoT stream. This research focus on proposing the unified rules extraction and decision engine to help smart citizens and managers using BIM and GIS data to make smart decision rather than focus on applications in certain field of BIM and GIS.

Theoretical Guidance on Evacuation Decisions after a Big Nuclear Accident under the Assumption That Evacuation Is Desirable

The development of nuclear power is a major measure for implementing energy-saving and emission reduction strategies all over the world. For a long time, the hazards of nuclear accidents have been obstacles to the development of nuclear power. Temporary evacuation is the fastest and most effective emergency measure to ensure the safety of residents in a short period of time after a nuclear accident. Numerous nuclear accident emergency management personnel make judgments based on personal work experience and subjective awareness when formulating a nuclear accident emergency evacuation plan. How to make a scientific and reasonable decision on the emergency evacuation of nuclear accidents in the shortest time is a common problem faced by many emergency departments when a nuclear accident occurs. In a complex and ever-changing radiation environment, how to maximize the use of limited information and make decisions quickly in an uncertain environment is a core issue that effectively reduces the risk of nuclear accidents. This paper constructs a set of assessment system of nuclear accident emergency evacuation plan selection based on the characteristics of nuclear accident emergencies under uncertain environmental conditions. It uses triangular fuzzy language to describe nuclear accident emergency evacuation decision plans and the weighting of relevant factors. Additionally, the K-means clustering method is used to calculate the weight of experts, which reduces the influence of subjective factors considered by decision makers. Finally, a decision model for emergency evacuation of nuclear accidents is constructed based on the TOPSIS decision model.

School Bus Transportation of Children With Special Health Care Needs.

School systems are responsible for ensuring that children with special needs are safely transported on all forms of federally approved transportation provided by the school system. A plan to provide the most current and proper support to children with special transportation needs should be developed by the Individualized Education Program team, including the parent, school transportation director, and school nurse, in conjunction with physician orders and recommendations. With this statement, we provide current guidance for the protection of child passengers with specific health care needs. Guidance that applies to general school transportation should be followed, inclusive of staff training, provision of nurses or aides if needed, and establishment of a written emergency evacuation plan as well as a comprehensive infection control program. Researchers provide the basis for recommendations concerning occupant securement for children in wheelchairs and children with other special needs who are transported on a school bus. Pediatricians can help their patients by being aware of guidance for restraint systems for children with special needs and by remaining informed of new resources. Pediatricians can also play an important role at the state and local level in the development of school bus specifications.

Multi-vehicles dynamic navigating method for large-scale event crowd evacuations

In recent years, the number of motor vehicles in the country has risen rapidly. Traffic demand has continued to grow, while land resources, capital and energy have become increasingly tense. The development trend of urban transport system is not optimistic. Especially in the face of major events, vehicle evacuation suddenly increased, which is a serious planning for the evacuation of a serious challenge. Reasonable and accurate implementation of the emergency evacuation plan is to make the evacuation time at least, to minimize the major traffic congestion protection. Among them, route selection and traffic flow distribution are the core contents of emergency evacuation plan. In this paper, traffic emergency evacuation of major activities is taken as the research object, and the state vector of each road is introduced into the navigation system according to the linking analysis algorithm thought. The network model of evacuation route selection is established by using the theory of spatial diversity and the theory of minimum cost maximum flow, and an empirical analysis is made on the road network. Based on the research, the emergency evacuation plan for large-scale activities is proposed, and the theory and method system of emergency evacuation are enriched, which can help with formulating more reasonable and effective traffic management policies according to the characteristics of emergency evacuation, meanwhile we provide decision-making basis for urban emergency evacuation transportation planning and management. An experimental evaluation is also conducted with the real data from city of Beijing, in aspects of effectiveness and efficacy.

Bluetooth portal‐based system to measure the performance of building emergency evacuation plans and drills

The safety of a building can be explicated in two different ways: the ability to withstand a critical event that affects the structure and the ability to safely allow people to leave the building. This article present a new methodology that can allow engineers to detect people trajectories in evacuation drills and provide a measure of effectiveness for buildings evacuation plans. In the proposed system Bluetooth beacon passive emitters are positioned as reference points and the sensing device is made up by the smartphones of people evacuating a building. The proposed methodology is thus based on using beacons that are capable of emitting a radio signal. The radio signal can be picked up by the sensors present in smartphones. The signal is then processed by a dedicated application on the device. Information is transferred to a computer and elaborated obtaining a measure of people positions. In the system people movements in emergency evacuation drills can practically be traced with very simple and affordable equipment. Once all data from mobile phones are gathered the system is able to reconstruct the trajectories of smartphones, in indoor (or outdoor) environments, and therefore to assess the overall performance of the building evacuation plan.

Emergency evacuation planning policy for carless and vulnerable populations in the United States and United Kingdom

Evacuation planning and policy in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) exhibit similarities and differences as both nations consist of an auto-dominated society with strong local government traditions related to emergency planning. This paper draws upon focus groups in five major cities in the US and interviews conducted in the UK. This paper examines the extent to which national policy in both countries addresses large-scale, multimodal emergency evacuation planning for carless and vulnerable populations. It also examines the barriers to effective emergency evacuation planning for these populations. The US could benefit from a policy framework established in the UK, which on paper provides a robust top-down and bottom-up approach that includes local, regional and national resilience forums to coordinate emergency planning activities. While the UK policy framework looks ideal on paper, the political reality is that a ruling party had ignored planning during the time leading up to the interviews in 2013. The UK could learn from the on-the-ground experiences from US disasters, which can strike anywhere. The study draws lessons from the US and UK and identifies five barriers to effective emergency evacuation planning. Suggested recommendations seek to promote effective policy and planning for evacuation planning for carless and vulnerable populations.

What3Words Geocoding Extensions

With the advent of location-based services, the demand for location data has dramatically increased. Geocoded locations have become necessary in many GIS analysis, cartography, and decision-making workflows. A reliable geocoding system that can effectively return any location on earth with sufficient accuracy is desired. This study is motivated by a need for a geocoding system to support university campus applications. Address-based geocoding systems have been used for decades. However, they present limitations in address resources, address standardization, and address database maintenance. These limitations have recently sparked an interest in developing alternative geocoding systems that apply alphanumeric codes as a reference to locations, such as Geohash, Google’s Open Location Code, and what3words to name a few. Comparing to other geocoders, what3words (w3w) has many advantages. It uses a simple format of code consisting of three words, it is less error-prone, codes are easier to memorize, and multiple languages are supported. However, its fixed resolution (consisting of 3 m by 3 m square cells) and lack of consideration of the third dimension may limit its applicability. To better support geographic applications with special requirements, the w3w geocoding system needs to be extended. This paper proposes extensions of w3w in two aspects: variable resolution and third dimension support. A geocoding processing tool that implements these extensions is being developed to support the need of a university campus’ facility management, emergency evacuation and route navigation planning, student survey data management, and other location-based services.

Network Design Model to Integrate Shelter Assignment with Contraflow Operations in Emergency Evacuation Planning

In traditional emergency evacuation planning, shelter assignment and contraflow operations are determined sequentially. In this paper, we show that these two types of network design should be considered simultaneously to achieve a better evacuation performance. A mixed integer linear program is proposed, in which an earliest arrival flow model is employed to describe the underlying system optimum evacuation traffic flow pattern. The embedded earliest arrival flow model, built upon a node-link network representation, helps to maintain a small problem size. To address the computational difficulty, an accelerated Benders decomposition algorithm is developed to leverage the separable structure of the proposed model. Numerical experiments are used to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed model and solution algorithm. The results illustrate that the integrated consideration of shelter assignment and contraflow operations in evacuation planning facilitates the effective usage of the evacuation network capacity to further reduce the total system travel time in emergency evacuation.

A Risk-based Model of Evacuation Route Optimization under Fire

Abstract Emergency evacuation plan plays a key role for fire risk management and successful evacuation. In this work, a topological model of evacuation routes is established and the corresponding matrix function is also proposed in order to evaluate evacuation ability. Simultaneously, risk assessment of fire scenarios is made based on numerical simulation. And on this basis, the variation laws of risk indicators such as temperature, thermal radiation, the concentration of toxic gas are analyzed in details and dynamic risk assessment of evacuation routes is made. Introducing the concept of equivalent routes, the scheme of the best route for evacuee at each location is the one along with the shortest time and minimal risk and suggested based on the Dijkstra algorithm. And then, one case is presented and result indicates that this model can aid people to avoid crowdedness and evacuate as soon as possible under fire accident. The risk-based model is also useful for the evacuation planning.

Using BIM model for Fire Emergency Evacuation Plan

Is it possible to use building information modelling (BIM) to create a fire emergency evacuation plan in the national condition of the Czech Republic? This article focuses on the advantages and possibilities of using BIM for fire protection.

The Effect of Person Order on Egress Time: A Simulation Model of Evacuation From a Neolithic Visitor Attraction.

The aim of this study was to model the egress of visitors from a Neolithic visitor attraction. Tourism attracts increasing numbers of elderly and mobility-impaired visitors to our built-environment heritage sites. Some such sites have very limited and awkward access, were not designed for mass visitation, and may not be modifiable to facilitate disabled access. As a result, emergency evacuation planning must take cognizance of robust information, and in this study we aimed to establish the effect of visitor position on egress. Direct observation of three tours at Maeshowe, Orkney, informed typical time of able-bodied individuals and a mobility-impaired person through the 10-m access tunnel. This observation informed the design of egress and evacuation models running on the Unity gaming platform. A slow-moving person at the observed speed typically increased time to safety of 20 people by 170% and reduced the advantage offered by closer tunnel separation by 26%. Using speeds for size-specific characters of 50th, 95th, and 99th percentiles increased time to safety in emergency evacuation by 51% compared with able-bodied individuals. Larger individuals may slow egress times of a group; however, a single slow-moving mobility-impaired person exerts a greater influence on group egress, profoundly influencing those behind. Unidirectional routes in historic buildings and other visitor attractions are vulnerable to slow-moving visitors during egress. The model presented in this study is scalable, is applicable to other buildings, and can be used as part of a risk assessment and emergency evacuation plan in future work.