An evacuation simulator for exploring mutual assistance activities in neighborhood communities for earthquake disaster mitigation

Abstract

Japan is at great risk of being struck by huge earthquakes. When a strong earthquake occurs, various other disasters such as fire, collapsing buildings, and road blockages simultaneously occur as a result. In such a situation, it is difficult to ensure that the local emergency activities by, for example, the public fire company and community volunteers, are sufficient. Considering this issue, mutual assistance among residents, such as firefighting, evacuating victims, and helping those in need of assistance to designated safety sites, is extremely important. This paper proposes the development of an evacuation activities simulator, considering the capability of mutual assistance under various earthquake disasters to support exploration of community-based activities. In particular, the simulator calculates the time that local resident agents take to evacuate to the designated safety site, and the number of agents that can and cannot evacuate. Users can change the ratio of those who cannot evacuate to the designated safety site based on whether they are without some support or with persons who support them. Therefore, users can compare the simulation results of various outcomes. Through the experimental demonstration the following findings were obtained. Confirming the simulation results, users can understand that human suffering is reduced by mutual assistance activities. In addition, users can distinguish when the capability of mutual assistance is high or low, and when the capability of mutual assistance is changed according to the time of day due to the presence of the commuting population. Therefore, users can explore the countermeasures used to reduce human suffering when the capability of mutual assistance is low.