Safety of users in road evacuation: Pedestrian outflow models in a building

Abstract

In this paper we present some results obtained in the research project entitled SURE, carried out by the Laboratory for Transport Systems Analysis (LAST) of the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria (Italy). The general objective of the project is risk reduction in urban areas in terms of exposure through the definition and implementation of evacuation procedures. One of the activities concerns the specification and calibration of a system of models able to simulate the transportation system when a population has to evacuate due to a forthcoming disaster. This paper concerns the simulation of pedestrian outflow related to the evacuation of a building, using flow models calibrated on the basis of data collected during experimentation on a test site. This experimentation was conducted in a school in an Italian town but the methodology used can be applied to any building with homogeneous characteristics in terms of activities (i.e. offices, banks, commercials, schools).