A decision support system for real-time evacuation management and rescue team planning during hazardous events in public infrastructures

Abstract

The emergency evacuation from crowded public transport terminals and critical infrastructures worldwide is a matter of great concern. Numerous research efforts exist, attempting to develop systems to abide by and ensure optimal evacuation guidance from disaster areas. Existing safety systems fail to guide effectively the most vulnerable travelers and to take into consideration the mobility impairment of each individual. In this context, current work elaborates on the issue by proposing a robust evacuation mechanism, incorporated in a Decision Support System. The innovative solution is to provide group-wise optimal routes to the exits, along with personalized routing, taking into account user capabilities and preferences. As a further step, the rescue teams are provided with a plan including prioritized targets with trapped travelers. The paper provides a thorough analysis of existing evacuation models and mechanisms, presents the DSS architecture and embedded algorithms, and discusses its performance. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.