Advantages of cooperative behavior during Tsunami evacuation

Abstract

Considering the case in which not every individual is able to efficiently evacuate, due to the lack of knowledge about safe spots and available routes to them, close cooperation between community members plays a critical role. Using agent-based simulation, we tested two hypothetical scenarios of human behavior during tsunami evacuation and their efficiency, considering time and number of rescued people. In the first scenario, individuals did not cooperate with each other. In the second one, community members were trying to organize in groups, even if they could evacuate by their own. The results showed that in the second scenario not only substantially higher percentage of citizens evacuated in a shorter time, but it was nearly as efficient as the evacuation of a community in which almost every individual know at least one safe spot.