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• Evacuation movement in underground transportation systems is investigated. • Data-sets on evacuation movement in smoke are reviewed and discussed. • A design recommendation to represent walking speed is provided. Limited guidance is available to engineers on how people's walking speed in smoke can and should be represented in the fire safety design process of underground transportation systems, such as road and rail tunnels. To address this issue, the behaviour and movement of people in case of evacuation due to a fire in underground transportation systems has been investigated. In this paper, the relationship between walking speed and visibility conditions has been analysed by performing a systematic review of current experimental research conducted in the field. This includes data-sets collected in Sweden, Japan, UK, Norway, Finland, Canada, and The Netherlands. A design recommendation on how to represent walking speed in both smoke-free and smoke-filled environments is presented. Uncertainty in data is thoroughly discussed and addressed in the recommendation. Three different methods to represent walking speed during the design of an underground transportation system are suggested. The selection of the method depends on the required treatment of uncertainty in the design. The developed representation substantially differs from existing methods used in fire engineering design to represent walking speed in smoke since it describes walking speed as a function of visibility, rather than the extinction coefficient. This permits comparison of data-sets collected in relationship to the presence of reflecting or emitting lights. Finally, suggestions on future research to be conducted in order to reduce the current uncertainties are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of the workshop "New approaches to evacuation modelling", which took place on the 11th of June 2017 in Lund (Sweden) within the Symposium of the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). The workshop gathered international experts in the field of fire evacuation modelling from 19 different countries and was designed to build a dialogue between the fire evacuation modelling world and experts in areas outside of fire safety engineering. The contribution to fire evacuation modelling of five topics within research disciplines outside fire safety engineering (FSE) have been discussed during the workshop, namely 1) Psychology/Human Factors, 2) Sociology, 3) Applied Mathematics, 4) Transportation, 5) Dynamic Simulation and Biomechanics. The benefits of exchanging information between these two groups are highlighted here in light of the topic areas discussed and the feedback received by the evacuation modelling community during the workshop. This included the feasibility of development/application of modelling methods based on fields other than FSE as well as a discussion on their implementation strengths and limitations. Each subject area is here briefly presented and its links to fire evacuation modelling are discussed. The feedback received during the workshop is discussed through a set of insights which might be useful for the future developments of evacuation models for fire safety engineering. • Findings of a workshop on new approaches to evacuation modelling are presented. • Five areas useful for evacuation modelling development are introduced. • Feedback on the modelling ideas is reported. • A roadmap for implementation of new approaches is drafted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents experimental data sets and information about the pre-movement behaviour and specific evacuation conditions observed in 15 evacuation drills in 10 nursery schools in the Czech Republic involving 970 children (3—7 years of age) and 87 staff members. Based on the analysis of video recordings, over 1800 data points describing pre-movement times, the interpretation of warning signals, the reactions and activities of staff members and children, levels of physical assistance provided to the children, and exiting strategies were gathered, interpreted, and compared to key literature findings. Our observations showed that pre-movement times measured during the drills ranged from 3 to 59 s, depending on experimental conditions, and physical help was provided to 25% of the participating children. The pre-movement behaviour of the participants was strongly influenced by the instructions provided to children as well as the daily routines, rules, and educational practices employed in the nursery schools. In addition, the principles of the affiliation model and role-rule model were identified as applicable to preschool children. To enable engineering applications (e.g., in evacuation modelling studies), findings are presented together with a set of nine behavioural statements regarding the pre-movement behaviour of preschool children. • New experimental data sets on pre-movement behaviour of children (3–7 years of age). • 15 evacuation drills involving 970 children and 87 staff in 10 nursery schools. • Data include pre-movement times and behaviour, assistance required, exiting strategies. • Nine new behavioural statements for engineering applications are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the total evacuation time of occupants in a multi-storey building not being affected by pedestrian merging on stairs, the calculation of evacuation times in each individual floor depends on the pedestrian merging ratio. In fact, different merging ratios may cause an evacuation to take place from the top to the bottom or vice versa. A simplified simulation model for the calculation of evacuation time at each floor is presented here. This model allows the investigation of the impact of two main variables affecting the evacuation time at each floor, namely 1) different initial numbers of pedestrians at each floor (i.e. occupant load), and 2) different merging ratios at each floor. This means that the model allows the calculation of the evacuation time at each floor considering a building with different occupancy types at different floors (e.g. office, residential, commercial, etc.) and different merging ratios which may be caused by a different configuration of the landing door at each floor. The model is presented in this paper using a case study of a hypothetical building. A detailed discussion on the model assumptions, advantages and limitations is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is reason to believe that factors such as physical exertion and behavioural changes will influence the ascending walking speed and ultimately the possibility of satisfactory evacuation. To study these effects, a 2-year research project was initiated with the focus on effects of physical exertion on walking speeds, physiological performance and behaviours during long ascending evacuations. Two sets of experiments on human performance during ascending long stairs, with a height of 48 and 109 m, were performed. The results include aspects such as walking speeds, physical exertion (oxygen consumption, heart rates and electromyography data), perceived exertion and behavioural changes, showing that physical work capacity affects walking speeds in case of long ascending evacuation and should be considered while using long ascending evacuation. Analysis of both walking and vertical speeds is recommended because it provides additional insights on the impact of stair configuration on vertical displacement and the importance of not using the same value for walking speed for different stairs because the design of the stairs has an impact. The novel datasets presented in this paper are deemed to provide useful information for fire safety engineers both for assisting fire safety design as well as the calibration of evacuation modelling tools. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The release of toxic gases due to natural/industrial accidents or terrorist attacks in populated areas can have tragic consequences. To prevent and evaluate the effects of these disasters different approaches and modelling tools have been introduced in the literature. These instruments are valuable tools for risk managers doing risk assessment of threatened areas. Despite the significant improvements in hazard assessment in case of toxic gas dispersion, these analyses do not generally include the impact of human behaviour and people movement during emergencies. This work aims at providing an approach which considers both modelling of gas dispersion and evacuation movement in order to improve the accuracy of risk assessment for disasters involving toxic gases. The approach is applied to a hypothetical scenario including a ship releasing Nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) on a crowd attending a music festival. The difference between the results obtained with existing static methods (people do not move) and a dynamic approach (people move away from the danger) which considers people movement with different degrees of sophistication (either a simple linear path or more complex behavioural modelling) is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An evacuation experiment including 100 individuals was performed inside a tunnel in order to study the effectiveness of different way-finding installations and to collect data on movement speeds and human behaviour. The participants took part in the experiment individually, and no group interactions were studied. The experiment tunnel was 200m long and an emergency exit was located 180m into the tunnel. In addition, emergency signs including distances to nearest exits were located every eight meters on both sides of the tunnel. The tunnel was filled with artificial smoke and acetic acid, which produced a mean light extinction coefficient of 2.2m−1. Participants had been told that they would participate in an evacuation experiment, but they had not been informed about the layout of the tunnel or the technical installations. The average movement speed was found to be approximately 0.9m/s, independent of tunnel floor material examined. The experiment also demonstrated the importance of the emergency exit design. A loudspeaker, which provided people with an alarm signal and a pre-recorded voice message, was found to perform particular well in terms of attracting people to the exit, independent of which side of the tunnel the participants were following. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Evacuation models can adopt different approaches for the simulation of human behaviour in fire. This paper provides an overview of the most commonly used modelling methods to represent the evacuation process in a fire scenario. This is presented through a structure matching the engineering time-line model of evacuation. The evacuation model development process is discussed considering both data-driven empirical correlations as well as theory-based modelling approaches. Examples of alternative methods to the currently used evacuation modelling assumptions are also presented. These methods have been chosen to provide examples of cases in which revisions of well-established assumptions may be needed. This review mainly focuses on buildings and pedestrian evacuation scenarios. Nevertheless, many concepts presented are potentially applicable to traffic evacuation. Particular attention is given to the representation of the impact of smoke on the evacuation process, as this is an important issue for fire safety engineering. Finally, a discussion on existing methods and procedures for the verification and validation of evacuation models is presented and the need for their standardization is advocated. • Evacuation model development approaches are reviewed. • An overview of core modelling methods is presented. • Verification and validation of evacuation models are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Well-planned evacuation is an effective and often necessary tool to protect life in communities threatened by wildfire. In previous incidents, community evacuations have been called too late resulting in entrapment, such as in Mati, Greece in 2018. The most reliable method to determine the safe time to call an evacuation is through trigger boundaries, perimeters on the landscape surrounding a community where the approaching wildfire is an amount of time away from the community equal to the evacuation time. This paper presents a new tool, k-PERIL, that calculates stochastic trigger boundaries, based on the variability of wildfire behaviour around a community due to the influence of historic wind, weather and vegetation variations on the wildfire. k-PERIL is applied to the rural community of Roxborough Park, Colorado, USA, producing probabilistic trigger boundaries and showing the model's ability to find and quantify areas of elevated uncertainty of evacuation. The concept of uncertainty rosettes is introduced, which show the areas where incoming wildfires cause larger variation to the boundary location because of higher sensitivity to changes in fuel, wind or evacuation. The k-PERIL tool can be used to inform effective evacuation preparation and enhance long term planning, improving community safety and wildfire resilience. • Mismatch between required and available safe times is unsafe for wildfire evacuees. • Trigger boundaries surround a community and start a safe evacuation. • k-PERIL is a novel model that produces probabilistic trigger boundaries. • Probabilistic trigger boundaries reveal the areas of most uncertain trigger. • Uncertainty rosettes show the areas around a community that are most at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding human behaviour in fires (HBiF), whether in building or wildland fire contexts, is crucial for saving lives and managing evacuations. However, existing research lacks a comprehensive analysis of HBiF knowledge from both perspectives. To address this issue, we examined nearly 1900 HBiF-related research papers and their references, identifying around 6600 frequently cited references as the HBiF knowledge foundation. We focused on highly prominent items using metrics like citation frequency, burst, and centrality. By analysing co-citation patterns among these references, we unveiled current trends and waning areas of HBiF research. This study identifies knowledge gaps and potential future directions for the field, enabling both mapping of the research concerning our fundamental understanding of behavioural decision-making in fires as well as developing more effective life-saving strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]