Emergency Evacuation Simulation Research Articles

Pre-evacuation Time Estimation Based Emergency Evacuation Simulation in Urban Residential Communities.

The timely and secure evacuation of an urban residential community is crucial to residents’ safety when emergency events happen. This is different to evacuation of office spaces or schools, emergency evacuation in residential communities must consider the pre-evacuation time. The importance of estimating evacuation time components has been recognized for approximately 40 years. However, pre-evacuation time is rarely discussed in previous community-scale emergency evacuation studies. This paper proposes a new method that estimates the pre-evacuation time, which makes the evacuation simulation in urban residential communities more realistic. This method integrates the residents’ pre-evacuation behavior data obtained by surveys to explore the influencing factors of pre-evacuation time and builds a predictive model to forecast pre-evacuation times based on the Random Forest algorithm. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted to find the critical parameters in evacuation simulations. The results of evacuation simulations in different scenarios can be compared to identify potential evacuation problems. A case study in Luoshanqicun Community, Pudong New District, Shanghai, China, was conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method. The simulation results showed that the pre-evacuation times have significant impacts on the simulation procedure, including the total evacuation time, the congestion time and the congestion degree. This study can help to gain a deeper understanding of residents’ behaviors under emergencies and improve emergency managements of urban communities.

Simulation of Emergency Evacuation in a metro-rail transit station

As a multi-layered transportation system, the evacuation of metro-rail station is directly related to the safety of people, how to effectively prevent and reduce casualties in emergency situations has attracted more and more attention. In this paper, the authors use Anylogic software to model the Chongqing Daping metro-station and simulate the emergency evacuation of the station in case of fire, the simulation results show that the emergency evacuation time of the station is about 3 min 6s, which means this station meets the requirement of China’s subway track design standards. The research of this paper can provide scientific basis and reference for emergency evacuation evaluation of multi-layered transportation system.

Agent-based simulation of emergency evacuation of cities during terrorist attacks

Agent-based simulation of emergency evacuation of cities during terrorist attacks

Emergency Evacuation Simulation and Management Optimization in Urban Residential Communities

Timely and secure evacuation of residents in communities is of great importance during unexpected disasters or emergency events. This study proposes a framework of evacuation simulation for optimizing emergency management in urban residential communities. Compared to traditional methods, the advantage of our framework lies in three aspects: (1) The method highlights easy-crowded areas in both indoor and outdoor evacuations. (2) Family behaviors are considered and implemented in evacuations. (3) Detailed measures on management optimization are spatially mapped based on a multi-level analysis and the comparison of evacuation simulation results in different scenarios. A case study in Changhongfang residential community, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China, was conducted to demonstrate the method feasibility. Simulation results have exposed potential evacuation problems in the community. A series of detailed recommended measures have been generated. These measures can help to create better emergency management for the community.

EXTENDING INDOOR OPEN STREET MAPPING ENVIRONMENTS TO NAVIGABLE 3D CITYGML BUILDING MODELS: EMERGENCY RESPONSE ASSESSMENT

Abstract. Disaster scenarios in high-rise buildings such as the Address Downtown, Dubai or Grenfell Tower, London have showed ones again the importance of data information availability for emergency management in buildings. 3D visualization of indoor routing services using extensive and high quality geographic data sources is essential for spatial analysis in emergency responses. In order to facilitate emergency response simulations, a combination of geometrical, graphical and semantic information is essential. Successful and efficient emergency evacuation responses is facilitated by the availability of both digital static and dynamic information of the incident site. However, interruptions may be encountered with the availability of dynamic data, where static data developed using indoor navigation ontologies serve as an alternative to inform the first responders. Thus, it is necessary to obtain a firm, interactive and quasi-realistic virtual simulation of the building environments. Voxelized CityGML models imported into voxel based hazard simulation systems fits well into the simulation algorithm requirements (Groger et al., 2008; Moreno et.al, 2010). Therefore, the research investigates an alternative platform for generating CityGML spatial analysis models. LoD4 models are developed using Computer Aided Design (Auto CAD) 2D files, crowdsourced geo-data (OpenStreetMap) and open source tools. A combination of software packages is utilized for 3D reconstruction of building interiors. This process is achieved through a Java application developed by researchers at Heidelberg University. Conclusions drawn from the research validate the 3D CityGML model generation process as an international standard to effectively enhance the outcome of emergency evacuation simulations of high rise buildings.

Application of artificial neural networks for agent-based simulation of emergency evacuation from buildings for various purpose

The application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for the pedestrian flow simulation is a new stage in the development of system simulation, which has become accessible due to the exponential growth of computing power. Authors, together with colleagues from the Beihang University, Beijing, developed a program that allows to solve practical problems connected with emergency evacuation in construction using system simulation based on ANN. Machine learning allows us to precisely simulate the behavior of all people during evacuation, their reaction on obstacles and other people, and predict the load on the main evacuation routes in advance and, as a consequence, make changes to the plans of the buildings, where necessary. With the help of this program architects and designers can find the right solutions for the projects, which will not require any further adjustments, after the building will be constructed. This program is especially important for unique multifunctional facilities, for example, sports stadiums or shopping and entertainment centers, where a real evacuation check cannot be carried out.

Integrating multi-agent evacuation simulation and multi-criteria evaluation for spatial allocation of urban emergency shelters

ABSTRACTThe timely and secure evacuation of residents to nearby urban emergency shelters is of great importance during unexpected disaster events. However, evacuation and allocation of shelters are seldom examined as a whole, even though they are usually closely related tasks in disaster management. To conduct better spatial allocation of emergency shelters in cities, this study proposes a new method which integrates techniques of multi-agent system and multi-criteria evaluation for spatial allocation of urban emergency shelters. Compared with the traditional emergency shelter allocation methods, the proposed method highlights the importance of dynamic emergency evacuation simulations for spatial allocation suitability analysis. Three kinds of agents involved in evacuation and sheltering procedures are designed: government agents, shelter agents, and resident agents. Emergency evacuations are simulated based on the interactions of these agents to find potential problems, for example, time-consuming evacuation processes and road congestion. A case study in Jing’an District, Shanghai, China was conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method. After three rounds of simulation and optimization, new shelters were spatially allocated and a detailed recommended plan of shelters and related facilities was generated. The optimized spatial allocation of shelters may help local residents to be evacuated more quickly and securely.

A path planning approach for crowd evacuation in buildings based on improved artificial bee colony algorithm

This paper proposes a new path planning approach for emergency evacuation simulation. This technique combines the Extended Social Force Model (ESFM) and the Improved Artificial Bee Colony (IABC) algorithm to enhance the visual realism and improve the efficiency of crowd evacuation. In the ESFM, we introduce a visual parameter to the original SFM and obtain the anisotropic psychological force rather than the isotropic one in the SFM so as to better fit crowd behaviors, such as long-range obstacle avoidance and self-organizing group formation. In addition, the IABC algorithm is proposed to improve the evacuation efficiency and provide support for building design and evacuation management by employing the strategies of grouping and exit selection. The algorithm uses the evacuation time of the individuals as the evaluation metric. If an exit is overcrowded and congested, the individuals will assess the degree of congestion, estimate the time needed to escape, and determine whether to select a farther exit for escape. By selecting the optimal exit and avoiding congestion, the evacuation efficiency can be improved. We have simulated the crowd evacuation with our new path planning approach via a crowd evacuation simulation system. The results show the effectiveness of our method.

Fire Emergency Evacuation Simulation of a shopping mall using Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS)

Fire accident in a shopping mall, garments factory and other labor intensive industries nowadays has become a common incident in Bangladesh and poses a great threat to life, facilities and economy of our country. In this work, fire and evacuation simulation was performed for a single stored shopping complex utilizing computational fluid dynamic techniques. Fire Dynamic Simulator with evacuation (FDS+Evac) software was used to simulate a shopping mall fire and study the effects of fire on the emergency egress process of people. The shopping mall of area 64 m2 comprises of seven rooms with a pool fire at the center of the mall is modeled for simulation. The total evacuation time (TET) for a fixed population density were estimated with the change of heat release rate, soot yield, soot density and the design pattern or geometry of shopping mall. The evacuation of agents in different time and different design pattern of the mall has been assessed using the data obtained from the simulation. FDS+Evac provides an integrating platform where the interaction between fire growth and evacuees can be taken into account by simultaneous simulation allowing a full coupling of the fire conditions and human behavior. This makes FDS is an effective tool for simulating large and high density crowds where the movement dynamics of evacuees is affected by the crowd pressure. Full scale fire experiment is often quite difficult to study the fine and crowds evacuation behavior. This paper illustrates a promising application of fire dynamic simulator (FDS+Evac) for fire and evacuation modeling to predict the total evacuation time.Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2017: 32-36

A Dynamic Indoor Field Model for Emergency Evacuation Simulation

Indoor emergency response plays a critically important role in disaster management for cities, which must consider the evacuation of people in a dynamic indoor environment. The spatial model is the foundation for the specific analysis of indoor emergency responses, such as evacuations. The current spatial model for evacuation has three primary pitfalls: (1) it primarily focuses on static spatial information, such as rooms, doors, and windows, and lacks dynamic information, such as events and sensors; (2) it mainly focuses on the horizontal space and the static scene and lacks a multi-story component that considers the different properties of stairs compared to planar areas; and (3) it places emphasis on the indoor navigation calculation with a 2D/3D network, which lacks individual properties that can support more complicated analysis, such as congestion and stagnation. In this paper, we propose a dynamic indoor field model with three typical characteristics. (1) It includes not only static information but also dynamic information, such as outdoor and indoor building geometry, sensors, fire spread, and personnel behavior. (2) It supports multi-story buildings from the macro level (building level and floor level) to the micro level (room level and individual level) based on horizontal and vertical indoor space. (3) It supports spatial calculations based on a three-dimensional space grid and can analyze potential congestion and stagnation during evacuation. We design a corresponding evacuation method that supports individual evacuation route finding and evacuation assessment. We perform a series of analyses of the applicability of the proposed model and the efficiency of the designed evacuation method based on multi-story evacuation studies. The simulation includes a total evacuation population exceeding 7000 individuals, and the analysis suggests that the new model and algorithm are effective in planning indoor emergency routes that avoid potential congestion or stagnation.

Risk-based personal emergency response plan under hazardous gas leakage: Optimal information dissemination and regional evacuation in metropolises

Knowledge on the characteristics of regional evacuation based on optimal information dissemination in hazardous gas leakage in metropolises plays a critical role. We established a risk analysis model for residents combining optimal emergency information dissemination and evacuation simulation in order to guide residents to make appropriate personal emergency response plan in hazardous gas leakage. The model was developed considering eight influencing factors, type and flow rate of hazardous gas, location of leakage source, wind speed and direction, information acquirement time, leakage duration, state of window (open/closed), and personal inhalation. Using Beijing as a case study, we calculated the risk of all grids and people and also obtained the three-dimensional special risk distribution. Through the microcosmic personal evacuation simulation in different condition, detailed data were obtained to analyze personal decision-making. We found that residents who stay near to the leakage source had better stay at home because of high concentration of hazardous leakage on their evacuation route. Instead of evacuation, staying at home and adopting optimal stay plan is very efficient if residents can receive the emergency information before the hazardous gas totally dispersed. For people who lived far from leakage source, evacuation is usually a good choice because they have longer time to avoid high-concentration hazardous gas.

Simulation of labor evacuation: The case of housing construction projects

Construction sites occupy of the labors who are engaged in many different activities that can expose them to dangerous conditions. During emergencies and extreme events of natural or manmade origin in construction sites, saving labors lives is the primary objective. Therefore, the contractors are required to establish effective emergency plans which have to be improved to aid for rapid egress from construction sites. To support emergency evacuation planning, it is critical to estimate labor evacuation times during project execution. This paper presents a framework that utilizes building information modeling (BIM) and computer simulation to plan the evacuation of labors in construction sites during project execution and to visualize evacuation times of labors at emergency conditions at any time from project duration. The proposed framework utilizes MassMotion software as the simulation platform that enables predicting the labor evacuation times under various conditions. In addition, the evacuation time calculated from computer simulation is used to develop and evaluate the plan. A case study is worked out to demonstrate a simulation of emergency evacuation from a housing building during its construction to demonstrate the use of the proposed framework. Finally, the paper presents the simulation results of labors evacuation in the housing building construction sites.

Emergency crowd evacuation modeling and simulation framework with cellular discrete event systems

First responders and security personnel face many challenges to safely evacuate crowded environments. Conducting frequent physical and table-top exercises are neither feasible nor economical. This is where modeling and simulation comes into play in providing a risk-free and economical method to practice various evacuation strategies, train first responders, and provide accurate decision-support and emergency guidance. With the aid of formal methods, here we present a suite of various egress strategies build on top of an open-source modeling and simulation environment. We use Cellular Discrete-Event System Specification (Cell-DEVS) formalism to explore emergency evacuation scenarios by building 12 egress models representing aspects of human behaviors under emergencies and the activities of authorities in guiding the crowd. The proposed framework explores random and controlled human movement, as well as implementing psychological conditions such as herd following and panicked states. We provide results analysis to compare evacuation speed under various egress methods, allowing for decision making when using the suite for training purposes. The outcome of this work is available on a public repository to serve the DEVS community, researchers, and public safety authorities interested in emergency evacuation simulations.

Impacts of High Resolution Data on Traveler Compliance Levels in Emergency Evacuation Simulations

In this paper, we conducted a comparison study of evacuation assignment based on Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZ) and high resolution LandScan USA Population Cells (LPC) with detailed real world roads network. A platform for evacuation modeling built on high resolution population distribution data and activity-based microscopic traffic simulation was proposed. This platform can be extended to any cities in the world. The results indicated that evacuee compliance behavior affects evacuation efficiency with traditional TAZ assignment, but it did not significantly compromise the performance with high resolution LPC assignment. The TAZ assignment also underestimated the real travel time during evacuation. This suggests that high data resolution can improve the accuracy of traffic modeling and simulation. The evacuation manager should consider more diverse assignment during emergency evacuation to avoid congestions.

Study on the application of unity software in emergency evacuation simulation for elder

Whether residents of the buildings on fire can be timely and successfully evacuated is the key to protect the lives of people and the safety of properties. This study aims to investigate the challe...

Human crowd evacuation framework and analysis using look-ahead-based reinforcement learning algorithm

Human evacuation framework is one of representative applications using the digital human model. While the early human evacuation frameworks focused on the emergency modelling and evacuation simulation, contemporary evacuation models are evolved as control frameworks which can be used in real-time emergency situations. While many research studies propose several control methods for human evacuation, most of the models ignore the human crowdedness in the emergency situations, comparatively. As the ignorance of the evacuating crowdedness may lead to the more harmful situation, this paper proposes an effective method considering both objectives - the fastest evacuation routes and the crowd-less paths to the exit. In order to generate the shortest paths to the exit, a reinforcement learning approach is provided. The learning method generates candidate directions from current status, and then the less crowded directions are extracted using the proposed look-ahead crowded estimation method. The suggested method can be used as a real-time control algorithm for successful human crowd evacuations.

Indoor Spatial Model and Accessibility Index for Emergency Evacuation of People with Disabilities

AbstractAlthough indoor emergency evacuation drills, simulations, and plans are addressed and well covered in literature, little attention is currently paid to the evacuation of people with disabilities (PWD). Routing is a major process in all indoor emergency evacuations, simulations, and plans. Current indoor emergency evacuation routing algorithms find the shortest path or attempt to balance the traffic on exit doors. However, accessibility is more important than travel distance during the emergency evacuation of PWD. A spatial model, an accessibility index assigned to appropriate elements in the spatial model, and a way-finding technique are the major requirements of such routing. Existing spatial models of buildings are general purpose, fall short of efficiently and effectively handling emergency evacuations, and do not take into account the requirements of PWD. This paper proposes a spatial model for indoors which is specifically developed for the routing requirements of PWD during emergency evacuat...

Methodological Approaches for Use Virtual Reality to Develop Emergency Evacuation Simulations for Training, in Emergency Situations

Several research studies have shown that training using simulations is a good strategy to promote the performance of students and work teams [1]. The effectiveness of the training, in terms of transfer, using simulations, has been proved for pilots (flight simulators) and surgeons (virtual reality systems) [2]. These simulations, based in expensive technology solutions, are very difficult to be implemented in companies, for training workers for emergency fire evacuation. In everyday situations, particularly in the emergency associated with rapid evacuation of people in buildings, is required by law, the development of fire drills. The main objective of these methods is to train the workers to peacefully follow a previously taught routine. However, in a real emergency, workers can be under a high stress situation and may not follow the previously trained behavior. This article will reflect on emergency evacuation in buildings and how the effectiveness of the training process can be increased. Thus, a theoretical approach of emergency evacuation will be presented and a discussion of VR as the usage for training in these situations.

A parallel spatio-temporal model for emergency evacuation simulation

The research provides a new way to simulate emergency evacuation in a large–scale environment based on multi–resolution modelling (MRM). The authors provide a parallel spatio–temporal model to synchronise and control two kinds of resolution models: the micro model based on multi–agent system (MAS) and particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm, and the macro model based on a fluid dynamics model. With this approach, it is possible to apply distributed simulation to a large–scale emergency evacuation, while the individual behaviours at specific locations can be also presented.

Agent-based simulation of building evacuation using a grid graph-based model

Shifting from macroscope models to microscope models, the agent-based approach has been widely used to model crowd evacuation as more attentions are paid on individualized behaviour. Since indoor evacuation behaviour is closely related to spatial features of the building, effective representation of indoor space is essential for the simulation of building evacuation. The traditional cell-based representation has limitations in reflecting spatial structure and is not suitable for topology analysis. Aiming at incorporating powerful topology analysis functions of GIS to facilitate agent-based simulation of building evacuation, we used a grid graph-based model in this study to represent the indoor space. Such model allows us to establish an evacuation network at a micro level. Potential escape routes from each node thus could be analysed through GIS functions of network analysis considering both the spatial structure and route capacity. This would better support agent-based modelling of evacuees' behaviour including route choice and local movements. As a case study, we conducted a simulation of emergency evacuation from the second floor of an official building using Agent Analyst as the simulation platform. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method, as well as the potential of GIS in visualizing and analysing simulation results.