Evacuation Behavior Research Articles

Dynamic coupling model of FDS and cellular automata considering trampling behavior

Fire accidents usually cause large casualties. In this paper, a fire evacuation model based on the dynamic coupling of FDS and CA, which dynamically couples disaster data and evacuation behavior, is designed to reflect the impact of disaster factors on the pedestrian evacuation process in real-time. Furthermore, pedestrians are divided into two categories, one type of pedestrians will choose to move against the wall to reduce the risk of stampede accidents, and the other type of pedestrian will evacuate to the exit according to the normal movement method. And considering the role of information transmission between pedestrians, the two types of pedestrians will transform into each other. In addition, the concept of pedestrian crowding, support, and friction is introduced and viewed as an influencing factor of normal pedestrian falls. Set the panic value as the influencing factor of the efficiency of pedestrian information transmission and the death probability of downed pedestrians. The impact of pedestrian density, pedestrian walking behavior towards walls, evacuation response time, information propagation radius, heat release rate of the fire source, and the interference of smoke on the pedestrians' visibility range on evacuation outcomes has been discussed through numerical simulations. The analysis shows that although the presence of pedestrians walking against the wall will slightly increase the evacuation time, when the available evacuation time allows, the risk of a stampede will be greatly reduced; The increase in evacuation response time will aggravate the panic psychology of pedestrians and increase the risk of stampede accidents; The increase of the pedestrian information transmission radius will reduce the risk of a stampede, and the effect is more obvious when the pedestrian density is smaller; Selecting building materials with lower heat release rates can effectively reduce the risk of fire incidents; The restriction of visibility range by smoke seriously endangers pedestrian safety and reduces the efficiency of evacuation.Our research results can play a reference and guide for future building disaster prevention design and public safety research.

The validation of pedestrian trajectories during turning and obstacle avoidance in virtual environments

Virtual Reality (VR) enables to study pedestrian evacuation behavior in emergencies. Yet, studies are lacking in assessing the similarity of pedestrian behaviors like avoiding and turning in virtual and real environments. In this work, we test pedestrians' avoiding and turning behavior in virtual environments from the first-person and third-person perspectives and compare the results in real environments based on the pedestrian trajectories. It is shown that the differences between the real and virtual environments in many indicators were significant in statistics, and the trajectories of participants from the third-person perspective in the virtual environment were much more similar to those from the real environment under our experimental settings. Meanwhile, most participants (22 out of 23) think that their avoiding and turning behaviors in the virtual environment from the third-person perspective were more in line with those in the real environment. The study shows that the third-person perspective is better than the first-person perspective in terms of trajectory indicators and controlling experience. The study could be used as a basis in the future for the perspective choosing while carrying out similar virtual experiments, so as to ensure the similarity of pedestrian trajectories in virtual and real environments.

Exploring the relationship between risk perception and public disaster mitigation behavior in geological hazard emergency management: a research study in Wenchuan county

Modern disaster emergency management emphasizes the collaborative participation of multiple parties. Exploring the relationship between risk perception and mitigation behaviors of the public is essential to develop the effectiveness of public disaster reduction and improve the performance of emergency management. Based on risk perception theory, a research framework on the relationship between risk perception and mitigation behaviors was constructed by selecting two phases of emergency management: pre-disaster preparation and mid-disaster emergency response. The results showed that self-efficacy positively influenced the pre-disaster mitigation behaviors and emergency evacuation behavior. Perceived severity only positively influenced the emergency evacuation behavior in mid-disaster. Additionally, pre-disaster evacuation drills positively influenced the emergency evacuation behavior and the behavior of asking for help from government departments in mid-disaster. The results indicate that pre-disaster mitigation behaviors can have a significant impact on mid-disaster behaviors only if pre-disaster mitigation behaviors provide clear guidance for the emergency phase of the disaster. Therefore, pre-disaster mitigation activities should be carried out strategically with the aim of improving the public’s emergency self-help capabilities in disasters, which provides theoretical and practical guidance for improving the effectiveness of public disaster mitigation and improving the government’s disaster emergency management system.

Study on Choice of the Evacuation Behavior based on SP Survey Considering the Decentralized Evacuation

Study on Choice of the Evacuation Behavior based on SP Survey Considering the Decentralized Evacuation

The impact of spatial scale on layout learning and individual evacuation behavior in indoor fires: single-scale learning perspectives

The detail and representation of a spatial layout varies with scale. This affects an individual’s learning effectiveness and understanding, in turn directly influencing their behavior in a fire evacuation. However, the impact of layout learning methods with different spatial scales on fire evacuation behavior, and the relationship between spatial cognition and evacuation effects, remains unclear. We conducted spatial layout learning across three scales with 81 participants and simulated a fire evacuation scenario in a mobile virtual reality for groups. We collected evacuation decision-making and user experience questionnaires as supplementary data. The results demonstrate that small-scale learning objects are the easiest for participants to understand in terms of spatial layout and relationships, but their performance in fire evacuation is poor. Large-scale learning objects significantly improve participants’ evacuation efficiency. Spatial layout learning plays a crucial role in fire evacuation outcomes, but traditional spatial knowledge acquisition measurement methods cannot predict fire evacuation performance. This study sheds light on how spatial cognition influences fire evacuation behavior and provides a more reliable fire evacuation simulation method based on mobile virtual reality (MVR).

The impact of people-signage interaction on way-finding evacuation behaviour

A Virtual Reality (VR) experiment with 60 participants was carried out to investigate the effect of signage on the compliance with its indicated direction in case of evacuation. Participants experienced a VR underground square scenario including different signage configurations. Variables linked to the signage placement/type were investigated, namely (1) the installation position, i.e., proximity to the indicated route, angle of interaction, and (2) the type of signage, i.e., signage on the floor, one-face signage on the ceiling, four-faced signage on the ceiling. Results show that the angle of interaction affects the evacuees’ chosen direction. Signage on the floor may lead to higher compliance to the indicated direction in presence of obstacles. Four-faced signage may lead to uncertainty since the viewer may see two faces displaying two different directions on the sign.

Emergency evacuation behavior characteristics classification of aircraft cabin passengers based on deep learning network model SMCNN-LSTM

Emergency evacuation behavior characteristics classification of aircraft cabin passengers based on deep learning network model SMCNN-LSTM

DEVELOPMENT OF SMARTPHONE APPLICATION TO SUPPORT TSUNAMI EVACUATION

Kamakura is a historical city situated along the Japanese coastline, which is at risk of being devastated by a tsunami due to its relatively flat topography and proximity to the Sagami and Nankai Troughs. Evacuation would play an important role to reduce the potential loss of lives resulting from a tsunami event. While carrying out evacuation drills is helpful to enable participants to take appropriate responses during an actual tsunami event, it is not realistic for all the residents to participate in such drills. Furthermore, as some coastal areas are renowned sightseeing spots, there might be many visitors who do not know the area well and struggle to evacuate in the event of a tsunami (Takabatake et al., 2017; 2020). Thus, the authors developed a smartphone application (App) that supports swift tsunami evacuation, which can be especially helpful for those who do not have sufficient knowledge about evacuation routes and refuge places. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the developed app, and to clarify its impact on people’s decision making with regards to evacuation behavior.

A Virtual Reality–Based Serious Game for Fire Safety Behavioral Skills Training

Fire disasters in tall buildings can cause considerable damage to property, injuries to people and death. An effective way to reduce injuries or death during a fire is to improve human evacuation behavior. Many studies have demonstrated that behavioral skills training can effectively help people of different ages to acquire safety skills for emergencies. Based on virtual reality (VR), serious games (SGs) and behavioral skills training (BST), this study proposes a theoretical model of “VR-SG-BST” as a fire safety training method. Older adults in care facilities were selected to evaluate the proposed model because their lack of knowledge on fire safety and the associated potential health problems increase the likelihood that they will become victims of a fire. It is expected that engagement and immersion in the SG can improve the elderly’s learning performance of fire evacuation skills and enhance their interest and sense of fun experienced during fire safety training. The SG could effectively improve the skills of evacuation in an emergency. Hence, this study involved two parallel investigations: 1) comparing fire safety behavior of the elderly between an experimental and a control group, and 2) determining the effects of BST for fire safety by comparing only the experimental group in pre- and post-BST phases. The study adopts in situ training (IST) to evaluate the acquisition of knowledge and skills during the experimental stage. It is concluded that the proposed VR-SG-BST model has potential to serve as an alternate approach to improve the elderly’s behavioral skills during a fire. Moreover, previous computer game experience enhances the elderly’s learning performance and fire safety behavior. The outcomes of the study provide suggestions and guidelines for VR-SG design in the practice of BST.

Application of the social force modelling method to evacuation dynamics involving pedestrians with disabilities

With the development of urban architecture, the growing demand for larger public buildings is becoming challenging for indoor human evacuation under emergencies such as fires. However, the indoor fire evacuation behaviour of heterogeneous crowds when including individuals with disabilities have not been adequately explained. Therefore, this paper aims to study indoor evacuation characteristics of a crowd involving individuals with different types of disabilities (i.e., individuals on crutches and wheelchair users) through a modified social force model. The computation and simulation is performed in a room with an exit in 15 scenarios involving varying number of agents (i.e., 20, 40 and 60). The real-time trajectories and coordinates of agents are obtained. It is found that with an increase in the proportion of pedestrians with disabilities, individual evacuation time of agents increases. This tendency is consistent with results obtained from a previously controlled experiment. The average evacuation speed of agents is negatively impacted by the mixture proportion of individuals with disabilities. The fundamental diagrams acquired from the simulation are similar with the experimental results. Furthermore, it is discovered that the presence of individuals of disabilities in a scenario triggers higher crowd pressure compared to scenarios involving all non-disabled individuals. With an increase in the proportion of pedestrians with disabilities, the crowd danger of agents increases, as also consistent with the experimental findings. These findings are helpful for computer-aided safe evacuation design to decrease heterogeneous crowd congestion during in-building fire evacuation.

Modified social force model considering emotional contagion for crowd evacuation simulation

Pedestrian behavior in emergency situations is an important part of emergency management, and crowd evacuation simulation provides a low-cost and low-risk method for investigating pedestrian evacuation dynamics by describing pedestrian evacuation behavior and predicting evacuation outcomes under hypothetical situations. This study proposed a modified social force model that combines dynamic hazard and emotional contagion frameworks to investigate the effect of panic on pedestrian evacuation dynamics under heterogeneous personality trait distributions. First, the emotional contagion framework was improved, and an updated emotional model was developed considering personality characteristics. Second, the individual self-driving force in the social force model was transformed from a physical drive mode to a psychological drive mode by introducing panic factors. Lastly, new rules for the spread of panic within small groups were formulated based on the important influence of small group behavior on evacuation. The simulation results confirmed the feasibility of analyzing crowd evacuation from the perspective of social psychology, and revealed that the spread of panic was closely related to the distribution of personality characteristics, individual walking speed, exit usage, evacuation efficiency, and small groups. In addition, the model could reproduce self-organizing behavior in crowd evacuation, such as fast is slow and herd behavior. Further, the results revealed that moderate panic can help improve evacuation efficiency, whereas excessive panic can result in uneven utilization of exits. In addition, the presence of small groups in panic crowds increased the crowd evacuation time.

It was one of the worst days of my life: Companion animal owners’ experiences of the Edgecumbe 2017 flood in Aotearoa New Zealand

In April 2017, the largest companion animal rescue in New Zealand history at that time was mounted to save hundreds of animals who were left behind inside the flooded township of Edgecumbe. This significant event prompted a study examining evacuation behaviour and the influence of pets on evacuation processes. An online survey was conducted, involving 212 households (35.5%) to gather data on their experiences and actions during the emergency. The results revealed that households with family emergency plans that incorporated pets' needs had a significantly higher percentage of evacuating at least some of their pets (94.1%) compared to those without such plans (50%) (p-value = 0.015). Interestingly, illegal re-entry rates were not different between participants who evacuated with all pets and those who left some or all pets behind (p-value = 0.161). However, the primary reason for attempted unlawful re-entry was to care for or rescue their animals. These findings confirm that evacuee behaviours in New Zealand are consistent with similar studies conducted in other countries. This consistency suggests that non-compliant emergency and evacuation behaviour should be addressed by implementing animal-inclusive law and policy. By incorporating the needs of animals in emergency management, both humans and animals can benefit from improved safety and well-being during disasters. This study highlights the importance of considering pets in emergency planning and the need for policy changes to better protect both people and their companion animals during emergencies.

Individual Behavior and Attention Distribution during Wayfinding for Emergency Shelter: An Eye-Tracking Study

A fast evacuation from buildings to emergency shelters is necessary and important after the occurrence of a disaster. We investigated the variations in physical behaviors and cognition processes while finding emergency shelter. The on-site emergency-shelter-finding experiments were conducted in Beijing, China. Participants performed the task by using a wearable eye-tracking device. We aimed to assess three eye metrics: fixation counts, mean fixation duration, and visual attention index, to perform cognitive searching analysis for the environmental elements. The results showed that most people spend more fixation time on digital maps (297.77 ± 195.90 ms) and road conditions (239.43 ± 114.91 ms) than signs (150.90 ± 81.70 ms), buildings (153.44 ± 41.15 ms), and plants (170.11 ± 47.60 ms). Furthermore, most participants exhibit hesitation and retracing behaviors throughout the wayfinding process. The participants with relatively rich disaster experience and a proactive personality exhibit better performance in the shelter-finding task, such as a shorter retracing distance (p = 0.007) and nearer destination (p = 0.037). Eye metrics, together with the questionnaire, can mirror the complexity and heterogeneity of evacuation behavior during emergency shelter-finding. In addition, this also provides insights for the optimization of guidance sign systems and improvements in emergency management.

Experimental and modeling study on evacuation behaviors considering small groups under different visibility

Experimental and modeling study on evacuation behaviors considering small groups under different visibility

Effect of walking height on movement of individuals and crowds in a corridor

The safe and efficient evacuation of pedestrians in an emergency has been widely investigated in the past. Stooping is a common walking posture of pedestrians in evacuation. Understanding the basic laws of pedestrian movement with stoop posture is instructive for developing effective evacuation management in an emergency. However, the evacuation behaviors and movement characteristics of stooped pedestrians are still unclear. In this study, a series of experiments on individuals and crowds with different walking heights were conducted in an 18 m long corridor. It was found that a left-deflection phenomenon appears in the transition from upright walking to stooped walking, and the deflection angles of pedestrians decrease with increasing walking height. The influence of walking height on pedestrian velocity is revealed through the comparison of individual and crowd movement. Restricted walking height can promote the movement velocity of individuals at low speed levels, and weakens the velocity at high speed levels. In contrast to the individual, the velocities of crowds at different speed levels will be enhanced by restricted walking height. Generally, pedestrian movement is affected by the initial motivation, walking height and pedestrian density. Restricted walking height has an encouraging effect in the motivation of pedestrian movement but can increase the physical discomfort of pedestrians. Besides, crowd density has an inhibitory effect on pedestrian movement, and restricted walking height can alleviate high crowd density, implying that appropriate stoop movement can facilitate pedestrian traffic and evacuation to some extent.

Design and evaluation of radiation disaster prevention map based on evacuation behavior

An effective disaster prevention map ensures public safety and efficient evacuation during emergencies. Emergency evacuation information design in Taiwan is in its nascent stages. This study focuses on individuals' understanding, behavior, and decision-making during disaster prevention to devise suitable disaster prevention map norms. We examined the Emergency Planning Zone's existing disaster prevention methods and surveyed the community to understand their disaster prevention concepts and needs. We conducted two experiments: the first tested the comprehension of existing disaster prevention maps and identified their issues, while the second evaluated a redesigned map based on Experiment 1's findings. We discovered that all age groups agree on needing accurate, fast information and diverse evacuation route options. Experiment 1 revealed disproportionate assembly point icons on the existing map, leading to navigation difficulties. The map also failed to mark landmarks, road names, and blocked intersections accurately. The redesigned map in Experiment 2 addressed these issues, showing that improving map information design aids recognition and memory, and bridges wayfinding behavior gaps in people with different spatial abilities. We suggest marking evacuation routes on maps, placing corresponding signs on-site, and locating assembly points near landmarks for easier navigation.

Design for safety in metro station evacuation: a study of fire emergency evacuation behavior and simulation

PurposeMetro stations have become a crucial aspect of urban rail transportation, integrating facilities, equipment and pedestrians. Impractical physical layout designs and pedestrian psychology impact the effectiveness of an evacuation during a metro fire. Prior research on emergency evacuation has overlooked the complexity of metro stations and failed to adequately consider the physical heterogeneity of stations and pedestrian psychology. Therefore, this study aims to develop a comprehensive evacuation optimization strategy for metro stations by applying the concept of design for safety (DFS) to an emergency evacuation. This approach offers novel insights into the management of complex systems in metro stations during emergencies.Design/methodology/approachPhysical and social factors affecting evacuations are identified. Moreover, the social force model (SFM) is modified by combining the fire dynamics model (FDM) and considering pedestrians' impatience and panic psychology. Based on the Nanjing South Metro Station, a multiagent-based simulation (MABS) model is developed. Finally, based on DFS, optimization strategies for metro stations are suggested.FindingsThe most effective evacuation occurs when the width of the stairs is 3 meters and the transfer corridor is 14 meters. Additionally, a luggage disposal area should be set up. The exit strategy of the fewest evacuees is better than the nearest-exit strategy, and the staff in the metro station should guide pedestrians correctly.Originality/valuePrevious studies rarely consider metro stations as sociotechnical systems or apply DFS to proactively reduce evacuation risks. This study provides a new perspective on the evacuation framework of metro stations, which can guide the designers and managers of metro stations.

Fish evacuate smoothly respecting a social bubble

Crowd movements are observed among different species and on different scales, from insects to mammals, as well as in non-cognitive systems, such as motile cells. When forced to escape through a narrow opening, most terrestrial animals behave like granular materials and clogging events decrease the efficiency of the evacuation. Here, we explore the evacuation behavior of macroscopic, aquatic agents, neon fish, and challenge their gregarious behavior by forcing the school through a constricted passage. Using a statistical analysis method developed for granular matter and applied to crowd evacuation, our results clearly show that, unlike crowds of people or herds of sheep, no clogging occurs at the bottleneck. The fish do not collide and wait for a minimum waiting time between two successive exits, while respecting a social distance. When the constriction becomes similar to or smaller than their social distance, the individual domains defined by this cognitive distance are deformed and fish density increases. We show that the current of escaping fish behaves like a set of deformable 2D-bubbles, their 2D domain, passing through a constriction. Schools of fish show that, by respecting social rules, a crowd of individuals can evacuate without clogging, even in an emergency situation.

Pedestrian Simulation on Evacuation Behavior in Teaching Building of Primary School Emergencies and Optimized Design

The spatial layout and arrangement of obstacles in the built environment significantly affect its evacuation performance. However, few researchers focus on pedestrian simulation-based design optimization of built environment under emergency evacuation conditions. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the evacuation performance of optimized design solutions for traffic space in the teaching building of a primary school based on a pedestrian simulation approach and to quantify the effect of design parameters on evacuation time. Firstly, the level of traffic space design parameters was determined and optimized design solutions for the traffic space of the school building were generated. Secondly, based on the Anylogic simulation platform, the environment module and pedestrian evacuation behaviour rules of the teaching building were built to realize the evacuation behaviour simulation. Thirdly, the effect of the traffic space design parameters on the evacuation time of the teaching building was evaluated and the most significant design parameters were identified. Finally, the optimal combination of traffic space design parameters was proposed under evacuation performance orientation. The results show that the sensitivity of the traffic space design parameters to evacuation time is 31.85%. The effect of corridor width on evacuation time is 49.06 times greater than the staircase width. The optimal design combination for the traffic space in the teaching building of the primary school is a 3.0 m wide trapezoidal corridor combined with a 3.6 m wide staircase, and a 3.0 m wide fish maw corridor combined with 3.6 m wide staircase, guided by evacuation performance. The framework developed in this paper provides technical support for the development of evacuation performance-oriented design optimization of the built environment, and the results are intended to supplement the building design specifications.

An agent-based simulation framework for developing the optimal rescue plan for older adults during the emergency evacuation

Timely evacuation and rescue in an emergency are significantly important to avoid serious injuries and death in a residential building. Previous studies regarding building emergency plans tended to adopt the data of the average population, while ignoring the elderly people with their sensory impairment, limited mobility, and a great potential for chronic disease, are more vulnerable to emergencies and thus have a high risk of death. Therefore, this study proposes an agent-based simulation framework that integrates the behaviour of both evacuees and rescuers to determine the optimal rescue plan for older adults requiring assistance in emergency evacuation procedures. A case study of a senior residence is provided to demonstrate the applicability of the framework for rescue plan formulation under different evacuation scenarios. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to explore the influence of rescuers’ delay time on evacuation and rescue performance and a method comparison is made to verify the effectiveness of the framework proposed in this study for rescue process optimization.