EvacuSafe: Building Evacuation Strategy Selection Using Route Risk Index

Abstract

At the time of an emergency, building evacuation is a complex safety procedure. Emergencies by definition occur quickly and unexpectedly. Effective and timely decision making during this period requires a comprehensive knowledge about the current state of the building and an ability to compare the probable outcomes of each evacuation strategy. This highlights the need for continuous monitoring of the building and high computation power for simulation of evacuation strategies. In this paper, a decision-support system is proposed that offers evacuation strategies for fire scenarios as a function of building layout, location and mobility of the hazardous fire products, and route selection of the building population. In the pre-event stage, the system simulates many fire scenarios to evaluate the time and risk associated with various evacuation strategies. When an emergency is identified in real time, the system matches the event with the nearest simulated scenario and selects the corresponding safest evacuation strategy. The optimal strategy is then communicated with the path planning guidance system to direct the movements of the crowd toward the safest exit route. The guidance system simulated here is based on a technology called the Active Dynamic Signage System (ADSS). These signs can change their directional message or dissuade occupants from taking an untenable route. A residential building with 66 floors is used as a case study for implementation of the proposed evacuation selection system. The framework is expected to help building emergency systems for decision making, pathfinding, and crowd handling during evacuations.