Incorporating human factors in emergency evacuation – An overview of behavioral factors and models

Abstract

Evacuation modelling has developed over time from simple engineering equations that do not consider behavioral tendencies to more sophisticated models with the potential to represent evacuation behaviors and decisions. This paper aims to lay the foundations for a more realistic representation of human factors in evacuation models, which is needed to ensure the adequacy of the infrastructure, decision processes and safety of evacuation. To provide a clearer picture of the empirical knowledge and modelling for evacuation studies, a generalized timeline is introduced. Recent behavioral evidence from empirical studies in the fields of both pedestrian evacuation and vehicular evacuations are reviewed to investigate the impact of various factors on the evacuee behavior over different phases. The consensus perspective on key behaviors that emerges is then used to review and consolidate the recent advances in evacuation modelling, in particular with respect to the formulations and techniques for representing these behaviors. Within each of these discussions, we pointed to current limitations and make corresponding suggestions on future research directions.