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In a fire, stairways are the primary avenues for building evacuation. Previous studies focused on investigating evacuation flow through evacuation drills in a high-rise office building to assess the accuracy of evacuation scenarios and compared them with evacuation dynamics. However, the effectiveness of evacuation drills in estimating many scenarios is limited by actual drills. The evacuation simulations present a promising approach to objectively evaluating evacuation scenarios. This study verifies whether evacuation simulations can faithfully replicate actual evacuation flow and effectively predict suitable evacuation scenarios or potentially involve parameter calibration. Through a comprehensive comparison analysis, this study scrutinized the reliability of evacuation simulations and calibrated the simulation parameters. The analysis revealed that factors, including adjustments to the door width, personal space considerations for occupants in both conflict and normal situations and variations in staircase structure configuration, can significantly influence the evacuation flow within staircases. Manipulating these parameters in simulations would enable a more precise replication of evacuation flow within staircases, thereby enhancing the simulation's accuracy in target evacuation scenarios. The findings of this research have underscored the significance of employing advanced simulation techniques to model evacuation dynamics accurately, facilitating a robust framework for devising effective emergency evacuation strategies in high-rise office buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to simultaneous horizontal and vertical displacement during vertical evacuation, the consequences of stampede congestion accidents can be more severe. Generally, pedestrians trigger a synchronization mechanism at some point during the vertical evacuation process. This synchronization behavior helps prevent stampede congestion and improves evacuation efficiency. This paper designs a well-controlled single-file vertical evacuation experiment. After the experiment, the video footage is imported into the TRACKER system to extract the coordinates of pedestrian step movements, after which the experimental data undergo calculations and visual analysis. The research findings indicate the following: Firstly, when the crowd coordinates trigger the synchronization mechanism, this behavior remains stable as long as pedestrian speed and direction are unchanged; Secondly, the variation in footstep speed over time is not directly related to the footstep synchronization rate of the crowd; Lastly, this study calculated the characteristic density value most likely to trigger the synchronization mechanism during vertical evacuation. This research deepens our understanding of crowd dynamics, reveals the characteristics of pedestrian movement during vertical evacuation, and proposes evacuation guidance strategies based on these features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate assessment of crowd evacuation inside the post-earthquake environment is critical from many perspectives, but this issue receives much less attention compared to the seismic losses of structural and non-structural components. This could be attributed to the fact that post-earthquake evacuation analysis is complex due to the interaction between human behavior and the actual built environment induced by different building contents. This study attempts to tackle this problem by investigating the impacts of different building contents on post-earthquake evacuation time by using an agent-based model that considers turning behavior. To this end, the agent-based model is first described, including: properties of the agent-based model with turning behavior, key aspects in its formulation considering different evacuation stages, and influence of different building contents (namely, debris from partition walls and ceiling systems, and various types of equipment) on the agent's behavior. Subsequently, a school building is used as a benchmark problem to validate the model without earthquake, and the findings indicate that the agent-based model can match the real safety drill results reasonably well. After the validation, the school building is subsequently designed in accordance with modern seismic design codes, and the influence of debris and equipment on post-earthquake evacuation time is quantitatively studied using a suite of pulse-type ground motions as input. Based on this case study, recommendations are made for structural and architectural designers in an effort to reduce the potential evacuation time. Specifically, debris induced by partition walls or ceiling systems should be controlled as it has the greatest impact on the total evacuation time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, terrorist attacks all over the world caused many civilian casualties seriously. Under the knife and axe terrorist attack, there are usually four groups of event-related persons, that is, pedestrians, terrorists, police, and safety guards in the scene. The behavior of them is different, but they are rarely considered together in existing litterateurs, especially the police and safety guards. In this paper, we propose the FFPS (extended floor-field model combined with on-site control actions of police and safety guards) model to study pedestrian evacuation dynamics considering terrorist attack on-site control action differences between police and security guards. The FFPS model consists of three aspects. First, pedestrian evacuation dynamics in terrorist attack environment is modeled. Second, the behavior of terrorists, police and safety guards is studied. Third, the differences of on-site control actions between police and safety guards are studied. We set up the scenario for simulation. The influence of terrorists' number and location, police and security guards' different actions, police entering time, police shooting distance, police and safety guards' spatial position, and police control strategy on evacuation dynamics are analyzed in detail. Those results provide valuable insights to quickly control terrorists, and sharply reduce casualties in terrorist attack environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2009, the International Building Code (IBC) introduced a new requirement for an additional exit stair or evacuation elevators in buildings (except residential buildings) over 420 ft. (128 m) tall. This new requirement has emerged as a critical innovation in occupant evacuation in supertall buildings, offering the potential for faster egress during emergencies. In the 2018 edition of the IBC, the analysis of full building evacuation with elevators is further required to demonstrate an evacuation time of less than 1 h. This paper examines the implementation of evacuation elevators in accordance with recent building code developments, such as the International Building Code (IBC), Chinese "General Code for Fire Protection of Buildings and Constructions" (GB 55037-2022), and the Korean Building Code (KBC). This study provides a comparative analysis of these regulations, highlighting the evolving acceptance of elevator-based evacuation methods. Since the requirements on means of egress in the codes in China and Korea follow similar concepts in the IBC, case studies of supertall buildings in China and Korea, where evacuation elevators were integrated into the overall egress strategy, are carried out to demonstrate the capability of evacuation elevators in achieving the IBC's requirement for full evacuation within one hour. Using computer-based egress modeling, the study evaluates practical solutions for reducing evacuation times, exploring factors such as elevator capacity, speed, and coordination with traditional stairwell egress. The results suggest that, while evacuation elevators can significantly improve evacuation efficiency, achieving the one-hour target remains a challenge in complex, high-occupancy environments. The study indicates the importance of optimizing the balance between stair and elevator usage and explores the future role of artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing evacuation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve crowd evacuation efficiency in large building spaces during fires, a spatial layout optimization method using PyroSim and Pathfinder software was proposed. Disaster-causing factors that hinder safe evacuation - such as smoke spread, fire scene temperature, CO concentration, and visibility - were compared. The arrival time of danger in fire environments was analysed, the time required for crowd evacuation was calculated, structural characteristics of building space affecting evacuation efficiency were identified, and evacuation bottlenecks in large-scale buildings were revealed. Taking the super-large building of Silk Clothing City in Jiangsu Province, China as an example, a spatial layout optimization scheme focused on evacuation efficiency was proposed and its effectiveness was verified. Results show that before spatial layout optimization, the available safe evacuation time is 145 seconds, which is shorter than the required safe evacuation time of 197.8 seconds, indicating high safety risks during evacuation in a fire. After optimizing the layout of smoke exhaust equipment, the available safe evacuation time is increased to 205 seconds, substantially enhancing crowd evacuation safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective disaster management can help mitigate both human and financial damage. However, the absence of appropriate disaster preparedness and management efforts can increase the vulnerability of international tourists to natural disasters. International tourists differ from residents and local tourists in various ways, including limited knowledge of disasters and disaster responses, use of different languages, limited access to signs, and shelter locations and evacuation routes. This study developed an agent-based evacuation model to determine the differences in evacuation behaviors among international tourists, residents, and local tourists during a tsunami. Further, it clarified the impact of both soft and hard countermeasures such as information provision and shelter capacity expansion. Our case study was conducted in the Minato Bay area in Osaka, Japan. The simulation results revealed disparities in the evacuation behaviors between international tourists and residents in the arrival times at shelters. The enhanced sign accessibility and provision of signs in multiple languages significantly reduced the arrival time of international tourists at shelters. Consequently, it is necessary to improve disaster management plans that ensure information provision in multiple languages and the establishment of temporary shelters near tourism spots to support international tourists during disaster evacuation. • Disparities exist in the evacuation behaviors of international tourists and residents. • International tourists following other evacuees take more time to reach shelters. • Enhanced sign accessibility reduces international tourists' arrival times. • Information provision in multiple languages reduces international tourists' arrival times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Experimental Technology & Management is the property of Experimental Technology & Management Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

When a fire occurs underground, pre-existing emergency escape routes may become ineffective. Such scenarios necessitate the real-time planning of escape routes that consider evolving conditions and prioritize safety. This paper proposes a multi-objective real-time search method for emergency escape routes using dynamic programming to address these challenges. Firstly, this paper discusses how the evacuation of an underground mine fire caused by external factors depends on the fire monitoring system, personnel positioning system, and emergency evacuation system, as well as the modeling and solution methods of evacuation route planning. Then, based on fire smoke, CO, and temperature sensor data from the mine ventilation network structure and monitoring system, the possible smoke spread in the event of an underground fire was calculated. The objectives are to optimize both the shortest equivalent length of the path and the shortest time to walk through the smoke flow while ensuring that temporary escape time does not exceed the rated protection time of the self-rescuer. A mathematical model for emergency escape route planning is established under these conditions. A labeling algorithm based on dynamic programming is employed to find the Pareto optimal solution set of emergency evacuation routes that meet emergency requirements. Finally, two path evaluation indicators, namely "escape target priority" and "personnel temporary escape time", are introduced to re-rank the solutions in the Pareto optimal set, thereby obtaining disaster evacuation routes with different priorities. Example verification shows that the algorithm can quickly solve the disaster evacuation routes that meet the actual disaster evacuation needs in complex networks. Example verification shows that the algorithm can quickly solve the emergency escape routes in complex networks that meet actual emergency escape needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In case of emergency, evacuation signs play an important role in guiding people to evacuate safety exits in large space buildings. Large space buildings are characterized by high ceilings and large areas. In the existing legislation and standards, the height setting of evacuation signs is fixed, but the influence of height changes on the visibility of evacuation signs is very important. This study fully considers the relationship between the height setting change of evacuation signs and the visual range and puts forward a smart safety design strategy for evacuation signs. The smart safety design consists of two parts, one is the mathematical relationship between the height change of evacuation signs and the visual range of personnel, and the other is the integration of the application process of smart devices. Firstly, the visual range of two different sizes of evacuation signs placed at the height of 1.7 to 6 m was measured experimentally in China. The results showed that: (1) with an increase in the height of the evacuation signs, their viewing distance gradually decreased and the visual range was reduced; (2) the mathematical model of the change between the height and the visual range of evacuation signs was established; (3) the height of evacuation signs between 3 to 5 m agreed more with the visual habits of the people. Then, on this basis, the smart safety design method can use related mathematical models to set the evacuation signs at the optimal height based on the actual distance between people and evacuation signs, ensuring that people can see the signs the first time, thus providing evacuation guidance for evacuees and improving the safety of large space buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Remote Sensing is the property of Editorial Office of Journal of Remote Sensing & Science Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Emergency evacuations involve a complex interaction between different stress-related factors (encompassing both human behavior and physical infrastructure) and associated responses. Utilizing the unity real-time development platform, this research examines these dynamics by exploring diverse aspects of evacuation, such as psychological traits and their interaction with physical infrastructure elements such as building layout, exit options, and crowd density. A single-story workspace at Marshall University was used as a case study. The findings reveal that individual human traits, behaviors, and interactions significantly impact evacuation success, often more than the physical infrastructure features themselves. Moreover, there is potential for the coupling effect where multiple stress inducing and/or reducing factors may act together and increase and/or decrease evacuation efficiency. In essence, this study underscores the complexity of human behavior under stress, emphasizing the importance of considering related factors in evacuation models to simulate realistic scenarios accurately. These insights, validated by subject matter experts for general applicability across various workplace setups, can help organizations enhance their emergency management strategies, resulting in more effective systems, better-prepared personnel, and more adaptive responses to different stressors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deposition and dynamics of smoke layers in large-space building fires are governed by a complex interplay of factors, making the prediction of such dynamics using traditional mathematical models challenging. In response, this study introduces a Back Propagation (BP) neural network model, devised from field simulation data, to efficiently forecast the temporal progression of smoke layers. It was observed that the model exhibits minimal training errors and high processing speeds, thereby fulfilling the stringent accuracy demands of fire engineering. Specifically, the model achieved a minimum relative error of 0.0005 and a maximum of 0.0845 across various prediction points, underscoring its reliability and precision. The ability of this BP neural network model to predict smoke layer changes significantly enhances the design optimization of smoke control systems swiftly and accurately in large buildings and supports rapid, informed decision-making during fire emergencies. Moreover, the model facilitates the development of engineering calculation models tailored for the quick prediction of fire smoke dynamics, which are essential for both theoretical research and practical applications. This approach not only conserves experimental resources but also advances the implementation of scientific, effective rescue operations in the event of large space building fires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a methodology to evaluate life safety risk of coastal communities vulnerable to seismic and tsunami hazards. The work explicitly incorporates two important aspects in tsunami evacuation modeling: (1) the effect of earthquake-induced damage to buildings on building egress time, (2) the effect of earthquake-induced debris on horizontal evacuation time. The city of Seaside, Oregon, is selected as a testbed community. The hazard is based on a megathrust earthquake and tsunami from the Cascadia Subduction Zone that was defined in a previous study. The built environment consists of buildings and the transportation network for the city. Fragility analysis is used to estimate the seismic damage to buildings and resulting debris that covers portions of the road network. The horizontal evacuation time is determined based on the shortest path to shelters, including the increased travel time due to the earthquake-generated debris. The effects of different mitigation strategies are quantified. Results indicate the fatality and life safety risk of a near-field tsunami increases by 4.2–8.3 times when the effects of building egress and earthquake-induced debris are considered. The choice of population layer affects the life safety risk and thus the maximum risk is obtained when daytime populations are considered. Use of mitigation strategies result in a significant decrease in the number of fatalities. For hazards with recurrence intervals larger than 500- to 1000-years, the seismic retrofit is comparable to vertical evacuation and an effective strategy in reducing fatalities and associated risks. Implementing all mitigation strategies reduces the life safety risk by 90%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tsunami vertical evacuation (TVE) buildings have the potential to save many human lives in countries exposed to near-field tsunamis. Up to now, TVE research has examined three main topics separately: shelter siting, building benchmarks, and decision-making by evacuees. This study aims to integrate these topics to develop more comprehensive TVE planning frameworks. To this, we examined a catastrophic tsunami evacuation scenario in Viña del Mar, Chile. First, we developed an agent-based model to estimate potential human fatalities in the case of a fully horizontal evacuation. Second, we designed an immersive VR experience, which we applied to a sample of 151 people in the city to collect their potential TVE decision-making, which allowed us to identify 11 buildings that could serve as TVE shelters. Lastly, we incorporated this new evacuation system into the former agent-based model to assess the potential impact of vertical evacuation. Our findings showed that while fatalities ranged from 50 to 72% of the population in the fully horizontal scenario, the inclusion of TVE buildings might decrease human losses by 6.5–13.7%. Complementary questionnaires administered to participants highlighted their lack of previous experience in real-world evacuations (only 45.69% had previously experienced a tsunami-related evacuation process), as well as their knowledge about how to proceed in the case of a future emergency (62.91% declared that they knew where to go during an evacuation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cameroon Academy of Sciences Journal is the property of Cameroon Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As the world steadily recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, managing large gatherings becomes a critical concern for ensuring crowd safety. The crowd-crush disaster in Seoul in 2022 highlights the need for effective predictive crowd management techniques. In this study, an empirical analysis of this incident is conducted using data from various sources, and model-based simulations are created to replicate hazardous crowd conditions in high-risk areas. In the empirical analysis, mobile device data indicates a significant increase in population above normal levels in the disaster area just hours before the incident occurred. In the simulations, a hydrodynamic model is employed to simulate a bidirectional collision, which quantitatively demonstrates that the average density during the crush reached 7.57 ped/m2 (with a maximum of (9.95)ped/m2). Additionally, the average crowd pressure peaked at 1,063 N/m (with a maximum of 1,961 N/m), and the maximum velocity entropy was 10.99. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the primary causes of the disaster were the substantial population, bidirectional collision, and escalating panic. The results of controlled simulations under various management strategies are then presented. By implementing effective crowd management techniques, crowd safety can be enhanced through quantitative comparisons of these key indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrification of adsorption processes is emerging as an adaptable solution for future gas separations. This study develops magnetic sorbent structures for use in induction vacuum swing adsorption (IVSA) process specifically designed for olefin/paraffin separation. Two sorbents, namely Fe3O4/ZIF‐7 (ethane‐selective) and Fe3O4/13X (ethylene‐selective) were developed and formulated into extrudates (Fe20/ZIF‐7‐P) and monoliths (Fe20/13X‐M), and tested under different regeneration scenarios, including simultaneous and subsequent induction‐evacuation, induction only, and evacuation only. The dynamic adsorption results demonstrated that regeneration under subsequent induction‐evacuation improves desorption rate and capability. Under this regeneration scenario, Fe20/ZIF‐7‐P achieved an ethane desorption rate of 0.24 mmol/g.min, representing a remarkable 37.5% enhancement over the induction‐only scenario. Similarly, Fe20/13X‐M exhibited an ethylene desorption rate of 0.35 mmol/g.min, indicative of a 34.2% enhancement. Moreover, the IVSA cyclic runs highlighted the excellent regeneration capability and stability of both Fe20/ZIF‐7‐P and Fe20/13X‐M with Fe20/13X‐M exhibiting ethylene purity, recovery, and productivity of 99.4%, 99.6%, and 39.9 mol/kg.h, respectively. Overall, these findings underscore the potential of the hybrid induction/vacuum process as an effective technique for achieving efficient regeneration of sorbents in olefin/paraffin separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, frequent flood disasters in China have seriously threatened economic development and public safety. This paper addresses the need for a dynamic urban flood emergency knowledge management system in emergency management departments and the lack of systematic knowledge among emergency managers regarding urban flood control. A multimodal knowledge graph-based urban flood emergency knowledge management model was constructed to enhance the decision-making capabilities of emergency management departments, improve the efficiency of public emergency evacuation, and reduce losses from urban flood disasters by analyzing the shortcomings of the existing emergency management system. An intelligent and dynamic flood emergency knowledge management model was built. This paper integrates multimodal knowledge graph technology to establish a multimodal emergency knowledge management framework for urban flood control. It develops and simulates the proposed model's application scenarios for urban flood emergency evacuation using the Flocking algorithm on the NetLogo platform. Through simulation experiments, the practicality and effectiveness of the model in real flood disaster situations were examined, particularly in simulating crowd evacuation behavior. The study found that the model significantly improves the accuracy of information and decision-making speed during emergency responses and supports emergency management departments in conducting targeted and personalized emergency decisions. This research provides a scientific basis for emergency management departments to optimize their emergency response strategies to flood disasters and serves as a reference and example for the application of multimodal knowledge graph technology in emergency management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern society, the size of buildings tends to expand due to technological advances. However, while prioritizing performance design and specific building materials, fire research has fallen short of creating a comprehensive fire characteristic database for building materials. This study presents a plan for building a big data resource to evaluate the fire performance of cellulose-based flame retardant building finishing material in buildings of varying sizes. The three types of building finishing materials applied in this study are polyurethane foam, MDF, and cellulose-based building finishing materials. The variables were determined based on the floor area, and the change in floor area was calculated using the aspect ratio, a dimensionless number. Data analysis utilized the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) to determine the time required to meet life safety standards for temperature, visibility, and Fractional Effective Dose (FED). The results confirm a correlation between the safe evacuation time (ASET) and increasing floor area. Additionally, the study demonstrates that cellulose-based flame-retardant building finishing material effectively maintains safe evacuation times even with increasing floor areas, as evidenced by increases of 41.0 s, 13.2 s, and 97.5 s in temperature, visibility, and FED, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elevated metro is a typical type of urban rail transit that operates on viaducts. Due to its fast construction speed and low cost, it plays an important role in transportation systems with dense concentrations of people. Once a fire accident occurs in rush hour, it will cause high casualty and enormous injuries. In this regard, studying the characteristics of fire smoke spread and passengers' evacuation is of profound significance. In this paper, Pyrosim and Pathfinder software was utilized to simulate metro fire and evacuation process. The variation of temperature, CO concentration, and visibility inside carriage and outside walkaway were studied to explore the characteristic of fire and smoke. Evacuation time, speed, density, and path were analyzed for six cases considering the influence of railing settings on evacuation walkaway and the use of track bed. The impact of smoke on movement speed reduction and temperature on the available door numbers were taken into consideration. Results revealed that the temperature of accident carriage rose to tenability limit after 50 s and the visibility decreased to 5 m within 150 s. CO concentration was below safety criteria due to sufficient oxygen. Temperature was the most important factor that leads to the risk of evacuation, especially inside the accident carriage. The length of evacuation walkaway could highly reduce evacuation time and density. Railings had a negative impact on evacuation while the usage of track bed had a positive effect. Besides, the impact of railings was not as significant as the usage of the track bed. Research results can provide decision‐making reference for fire protection and evacuation design to alleviate congestion and improve safety management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural wind velocities in tunnels under different natural conditions are distinct, and the longitudinal ventilation velocity significantly impacts the evacuation environment. This paper examines the evacuation conditions and strategies under varying wind velocities in bifurcated tunnels. Using Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and Pathfinder software, the fire development and evacuation of three distinct longitudinal positions in a bifurcated tunnel are simulated. The simulation results demonstrate that the evacuation conditions for disparate fire sources at varying wind velocities are markedly disparate. In consideration of the construction cost and the maximization of evacuation capacity, the width of the evacuation doors at the three locations should be set to 2 m, 1.5 m, and 1.5 m, respectively. Furthermore, an analysis of the safety of individual personnel through Fractional Effective Dose (FED) revealed that directing evacuees towards the upstream of the fire after the fire is detected can significantly reduce individual personnel injuries while ensuring the overall success of the evacuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the evacuation of people from multipurpose halls and introduces an innovative approach that uses a probabilistic model, specifically the Monte Carlo method, to analyse iterative evacuation processes. The aim is to explore how this modern technology can contribute to the development of effective and safe evacuation plans for mass events. The Monte Carlo method was applied to a specific example of a multipurpose hall that offers different configurations for events such as sports matches, concerts, or performances. The evacuation of people was analysed for two configurations: a hockey match with a capacity of 9500 people and a concert with a capacity of 11,000 people. In both cases, the total evacuation of people from the hall was analysed, and the evacuation time was evaluated when two parameters were changed: speed of movement and preference for door selection. The results of the simulations can provide valuable information for the design of effective safety measures in multipurpose halls and other similar multipurpose venues. This innovative approach to evacuation analysis allows for a comprehensive assessment of the evacuation process, identification of critical areas, and verification of the layout of the space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass rapid transit (MRT) systems are the backbone of transportation infrastructure in many cities. During emergencies, indoor subway stations become particularly susceptible to panic and overcrowding, making evacuation difficult. Therefore, simulating the evacuation and sheltering processes of a large number of individuals during emergencies is key in urban disaster response. In this study, a spatial evacuation risk model was used to enhance the safety of evacuation strategies in an MRT system. Data were collected on spatial architectural floor plans, and a database for communication and pedestrian flow was established. The behavioral patterns and distribution of individuals within stations and the characteristics of refuge spaces were also investigated. To simulate the processes of evacuation and sheltering, the Pathfinder evacuation simulation tool was used to construct a three-dimensional spatial model of a subway station. Specific scenarios were then constructed to simulate the procedures of evacuation and sheltering. Subsequently, the factors contributing to overcrowding-related hazards were analyzed to examine the spatial risks associated with crowd aggregation and evacuation and provide recommendations for improvement. Given its numerous advantages, this approach can serve as a valuable reference for conducting risk assessments in other large-scale crowd aggregation spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial design greatly influences fire evacuation in buildings. Although existing works have comprehensively assessed building spatial design in terms of building circulation, they overlooked how the building layout and emergency signage system affect occupants' attention allocation during fire emergencies. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework to investigate the effectiveness of building evacuation impacted by building spatial design by integrating building information model (BIM), fire simulation, and virtual reality (VR) technology. A case study was carried out to evaluate building spatial design in terms of building circulation and emergency signage. The results demonstrated that when the signage sizes were relatively small but the spacing and placement heights were reasonable, participants were able to recognize and follow the guide. However, insufficient continuity caused the participants to waste much effort searching for helpful information on evacuation-irrelevant objects, reducing fire evacuation efficiency. Moreover, the signage placed at a higher position has a positive effect on route choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the building emergency evacuation path planning problem, existing algorithms suffer from low convergence efficiency and the problem of getting trapped in local optima. The Bloch Spherical Quantum Genetic Algorithm (BQGA) based on the least-squares principle for single-robot path planning and Bloch Spherical Quantum Bee Colony Algorithm (QABC) for multi-robots path planning are studied. Firstly, the characteristics of three-dimensional path planning are analyzed, and a linear decreasing inertia weighting approach is used to balance the global search ability of chromosomes and accelerate the search performance of the algorithm. Then, the application algorithm can generate a clear motion trajectory in the raster map. Thirdly, the least squares approach is used to fit the results, thus obtaining a progressive path. Finally, multi-robots path planning approaches based on QABC are discussed, respectively. The experimental results show that BQGA and QABC do not need to have a priori knowledge of the map, and they have strong reliability and practicality and can effectively avoid local optimum. In terms of convergence speed, BQGA improved by 3.39% and 2.41%, respectively, while QABC improved by 13.31% and 17.87%, respectively. They are more effective in sparse paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the chemical industry, when a fire occurs, a significant amount of energy is generated due to combustion, impacting other facilities within the plant and potentially leading to severe consequences through a domino effect. For decades, thermal radiation caused by flames has been calculated and predicted through simplified fire modeling. However, with advancements in computing technology, numerical model‐based calculations have greatly improved, allowing for a more realistic implementation that considers actual phenomena. In this study, accident data and 3D modeling information were utilized to conduct fire modeling and simulation based on actual incidents in chemical plants. Through the analysis of simulation results, the initial emergency evacuation distance was provided to minimize the damage caused by thermal radiation, and the final evacuation distance was presented using the probit function. In addition, the study evaluated the impact of generated thermal radiation and overpressure on structures and equipment, providing evidence regarding the potential for secondary incidents. Moreover, the research revealed that the impact of thermal radiation and overpressure decreases due to obstacles, offering insights into the selection of emergency evacuation routes. This study can contribute to supporting effective emergency evacuation strategies in chemical facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting anomalies in crowd scenes holds a critical task in automated video inspection to prevent any casualties in the regions that witness the higher quantity of footfalls. The main confront for the automated classification of crowd anomalies in images is the utilization of feature sets and methods that could be simulated in each crowded scenario. This research aims to provide a novel crowd anomaly detection approach with 4 key steps. Initially, video frame conversion takes place during preprocessing and then the segmentation process is done via Entropy based FCM (EFCM). Further, a Histogram of Gradients (HoG), Local Gradient Pattern (LGP), and improved spatiotemporal features are derived. The DCNN classifier is then used to classify these traits, and the exact discovered results are obtained. For exact detection, this paper intends to optimize the weights of DCNN using Self Improved Dingo Optimization (SI-DOX) model. The proposed technique has achieved high accuracy values at the 90th LP, better than the existing methods like DCNN + DOX, DCNN + SNFO, DCNN + PRO, DCNN + GOA, and DCNN + GWO by 3.23%, 10.75%, 4.3%, 3.23%, and 4.3%, respectively. Finally, the performance of proposed model is evaluated regarding diverse metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slope instability due to tectonic, hydrological and anthropogenic activities cause severe landslides in Himalaya. Joshimath, a densely populated Himalayan town witnessed a catastrophic landslide event during December 2022 and January 2023 causing damages to ∼700 buildings. We use Interferometric synthetic aperture radar, Global Positioning System and rainfall measurements to probe the kinematics of the Joshimath landslide. We separate the seasonal and episodic deformation components using singular spectrum analysis. While the low amplitude annual landslide motions are modulated by seasonal precipitation, acceleration phases are triggered by extreme rain events. Our analysis revealed episodes of cascading motions triggered by extreme rain events resulting an overall increase in landslide velocity from −22 mm/yr during 2004–2010 to −325 mm/yr during 2022–2023. We estimate the landslide depth (∼30 m) and hydraulic diffusivity (∼3 × 10−5 m2/s) using a 1‐D pore‐water pressure diffusion model. Our study reveals the importance of systematic monitoring of ground deformation and weather parameters for landslide hazard mitigation. Plain Language Summary: The Himalayas, world's largest and youngest mountain range formed as a result of the India‐Eurasia continental collision hosts thousands of landslides each year related to tectonic and anthropogenic activities. It is important to characterize the landslide kinematics, especially the slow moving landslides at the fast‐developing Himalayan urban centers for hazard assessment. A recent catastrophic landslide event in the Joshimath town in NW Himalaya occurred between December 2022 and January 2023 caused damages to ∼700 buildings leading to mass evacuation. We map the spatio‐temporal evolution of land deformation at Joshimath using about two decades of geodetic measurements and singular spectrum analysis technique. While the decadal‐scale landslide motions match well with the overall increase in rainfall intensity, the episodic accelerations are triggered by extreme rain events. The extreme rainfall event on 19 October 2021, triggered the latest episode of landslide acceleration, which eventually led to the tragic disaster. The present study, for the first time, provides constraints on the landslide depth and hydraulic diffusivity. Our study also emphasis on the systematic monitoring of ground deformation and weather parameters at the Himalayas for an effective landslide hazard preparedness and mitigation. Key Points: Joshimath landslide displays episodic and seasonal kinematic changes; episodic accelerations are triggered by extreme rain eventsThe 19 October 2021 extreme rain event triggered the latest episode of landslide acceleration culminating to the 2022 disasterDepth and hydraulic diffusivity of the landslide is constrained using 1‐D pore‐water pressure diffusion model [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding exit choice behaviour is essential for optimising safety management strategies in building evacuations. Previous research focused on contextual attributes, such as spatial information, influencing exit choice, often using utility models based on monotonic functions of attributes. However, during emergencies, evacuees typically make rapid, less calculated decisions. The choice of context can significantly impact the evaluation of attributes, leading to preference reversals within the same choice set but under varying context conditions. This cognitive psychological phenomenon, known as context effects, encompasses the compromise effect, the similarity effect, and the attraction effect. While researchers have long recognised the pivotal role of context effects in human decision making, their incorporation into computer-aided evacuation management remains limited. To address this gap, we introduce context effects (CE) in a social force (SF) model, CE-SF. Evaluating CE-SF's performance against the UF-SF model, which considers only the utility function (UF), we find that CE-SF better replicates exit choice behaviour across urgency levels, highlighting its potential to enhance evacuation strategies. Notably, our study identifies three distinct context effects during evacuations, emphasising their importance in advancing safety measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional storage method of fire accident cases is mainly in the form of text, and it is difficult to effectively conduct comprehensive analysis due to the limited ability to display key information and fire knowledge. In this paper, a structured storage form of building fire cases was proposed based on knowledge graph, which can comprehensively describe and visualize the fire causes, the dynamic fire development process and evacuation process. It enables readers to get information and knowledge from building fire cases intuitively, and supports the comprehensive analysis for building fire prevention strategies. The knowledge graphs are constructed for two common building types (residential and public buildings), and have the capacity to reflect the dynamic development law of fires from ignition to spread in different buildings. Meanwhile, as the occupants' evacuation is the first concern when a fire occurs, the knowledge graphs also visualize the relationship among various conditions in the evacuation process. Different application scenarios are displayed in the paper, including case query, root-cause analysis and consequence forecasting, which shows the advantages and applicability of building fire knowledge graph. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial accessibility of emergency shelters, indicating the difficulty of evacuation and rescue, is crucial for disaster mitigation and emergency management. To analyze accessibility, an effective approach is to evaluate the service capacity of emergency shelters. Multifaceted factors were employed to enhance the quantitative accuracy of accessibility indicators. However, scenario-specific analysis has not been emphasized. Considering the devastating potential of great earthquake disasters, we cannot ignore the impact of these scenarios on emergency shelter accessibility, especially in areas with high seismic risk. In this study, we developed an earthquake scenario-specific framework for spatial accessibility analysis (SAA), which integrates the service capacity of emergency shelters and the impact of strong ground motion and fault rupturing. We applied this framework to the urban area of Xichang City in Sichuan Province, western China. Xichang City, located in the linked area of the Anninghe fault and Zemuhe fault with many extreme historical earthquake disaster records, is prone to high seismic risk. We firstly collected emergency shelter and road network data in Xichang City. We then applied SAA based on the road network, using the network analysis method. After that, we analyzed the impact of strong ground motion on accessibility and generated the setback zone of fault rupturing. We integrated the effect of strong ground motion on accessibility within the setback zone of active faults. Finally, we generated a comprehensive accessibility map, considering both the predicted strong ground motion and potential fault rupturing. Our results show that the accessibility level changed in several towns of urban Xichang City due to strong ground motion and fault rupturing. The accessibility level decreased in Lizhou, Xingsheng, and Anning Towns. For areas with mapped fault lines, the accessibility level is Very-Low. Our results demonstrate the impact of earthquake damage on the accessibility of emergency shelters and the complexity of evacuation in earthquake scenarios. In general, we added earthquake rupturing and ground motion characteristics into the SAA framework. This framework will help us enhance the reliability of SAA and the feasibility of seismic vulnerability evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When building groups are subjected to earthquakes, the potential hazard of exterior falling debris poses a significant risk of causing severe injuries and fatalities. In this study, an integrated simulation method of the large-scale earthquakeinduced exterior falling debris for building groups is proposed, which includes modeling, calculation, and visualization. Firstly, a modeling algorithm is established for falling debris models of building groups. This algorithm employs the Octree algorithm to support the transformation of the three-dimensional (3D) building surface model into falling debris models. Subsequently, the generated falling debris models are aggregated using a density clustering algorithm, and theirmotion is efficiently calculated based on the physics engine and time history analysis. Finally, a cooperative visualization algorithm is developed to effectively present a 3D scene that incorporates both structural displacement and the motion of falling debris in building groups. The actual distribution of exterior falling debris during the earthquake in Turkey validates the proposed simulation method, which is then integrally applied to the Beijing central business district. This integrated simulation method has the capability to provide a large-scale 3D scene of falling debris for the virtual safety drills of earthquake evacuation and rescue within urban building groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to ensure the safety of life and property in large buildings, the design of emergency evacuation routes for large buildings based on cloud computing and GIS big data is studied. Combining cloud computing and GIS big data, a command model for emergency evacuation of large buildings is built. Emergency evacuation functions are realized through the access layer, business logic layer, cloud computing layer and data layer. GIS big data of large buildings is stored in the model data layer. GIS geographic data is clustered through the MapReduce based parallel K-means clustering algorithm in the cloud computing layer. After clustering, the emergency evacuation road network of large buildings is constructed through GIS in the business logic layer. On the road network, the emergency evacuation route selection method combining Dikstra algorithm and ant colony algorithm is used to realize the optimal route selection of emergency evacuation of large buildings. Experiments show that this method can effectively select the best evacuation path in large buildings, and the evacuation speed of the selected path is fast, which can ensure the safety of people in buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper improves the visual change-based personnel evacuation model by considering the evacuees' gravity. Specifically, first, the new model incorporates the gravity formula in the model's mechanic part to consider the influence of gravity. Second, the new model involves rules for determining the visual range of personnel moving in the stairwell. Third, the proposed model investigates the influence of the angle and width of the stairwell, the number of people, and other factors during personnel evacuation under the influence of gravity. The model is developed in Python and is compared with actual results, revealing that the proposed model is more realistic considering the evacuation time compared to current models. Indeed, under a fixed number of people, when the stairwell angle is less than 34°, the evacuation time decreases as the angle increases, and when the stairwell angle exceeds 34°, the evacuation time is almost unchanged. Additionally, under a fixed number of evacuees, the evacuation time decreases as the width of the stairwell increases, and due to stairwell width space redundancy, the evacuation time tends to stabilize. The results of the new model research provide reference for the design of building safety evacuation, thereby improving the safety of buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Korea, the need to link fire and evacuation simulations to compare the available safety egress time (ASET) and required safety egress time (RSET) in real time when implementing performance-based design in buildings is increasing. Accordingly, the Consolidated Model of Fire Growth and Smoke Transport (CFAST) has been discussed as an alternative to the fire dynamics simulator, which requires high computational costs, sufficient experience in fire dynamics numerical calculations, and various input parameters and faces limitations in integration with evacuation simulations. A method for establishing a reasonable computational domain to predict the activation times of smoke and heat detectors has been proposed. This study examined the validity of using CFAST to predict factors relevant to the ASET evaluation. The results showed that CFAST, which solved empirical correlations based on heat release rates, predicted high gas temperatures similarly. Moreover, the applicability of the visibility distance calculation method using smoke concentration outputs from CFAST was examined. The results suggest that despite the limitations of the zone model, CFAST can produce reasonable ASET results. These results are expected to enhance the usability of CFAST in terms of understanding general fire engineering technology and simple fire dynamics trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A calamitous landslide happened at 22:00 on September 1, 2014 in the Yunyang area of Chongqing City, southwest China, enforcing the evacuation of 508 people and damaging 23 buildings. The landslide volume comprised 1.44 million m3 of material in the source area and 0.4 million m3 of shoveled material. The debris flow runout extended 400 m vertically and 1600 m horizontally. The Xianchi reservoir landslide event has been investigated as follows: (1) samples collected from the main body of landslide were carried out using GCTS ring shear apparatus; (2) the parameters of shear and pore water pressure have been measured; and (3) the post‐failure characteristics of landslide have been analyzed using the numerical simulation method. The excess pore‐water pressure and erosion in the motion path are considered to be the key reasons for the long‐runout motion and the scale‐up of landslides, such as that at Xianchi, were caused by the heavy rainfall. The aim of this paper is to acquired numerical parameters and the basic resistance model, which is beneficial to improve simulation accuracy for hazard assessment for similar to potentially dangerous hillslopes in China and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earthquake simulations at the urban scale usually focus on estimating the damages to the built environment and the consequent losses without fully taking into account human behavior in crisis. Yet, human behavior is a key element for improving crisis disaster management; therefore, it is important to include it in seismic crisis simulations. In this study, an agent-based model for the simulation of pedestrian evacuation during earthquakes at the city scale is developed following an interdisciplinary approach. The model recreates the urban conditions using Geographic Information System (GIS) and a synthetic population, in addition to the earthquake consequences on the urban fabric. Moreover, the model integrates realistic human behaviors calibrated using quantitative survey results. We simulate pedestrian outdoor mobility with the different constraints that affect it such as the topography and the presence of debris. The simulator is applied to the case of Beirut, Lebanon. A what-if approach is adopted to analyze the population's safety in case of earthquakes in Beirut, particularly the open spaces' capacity to provide shelters and the effect of debris and realistic human behaviors on people's safety. The simulation results show that less than 40% of the population is able to arrive at an open space within 15 min after an earthquake. This number is further reduced when some open spaces are locked. Debris and realistic human behaviors significantly delay the arrivals to safe areas and, therefore, should not be neglected in earthquake simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complexity of high-rise building structures and functions significantly increases the challenges in emergency responses to indoor fire incidents. This complexity is due to multiple factors that must be evaluated for decision-making within the fire scenario, such as the entities within the building, the status of environment, and the actions of people. An effective and precise indoor fire emergency management model should fully take into consideration of multiple factors, aiming to ensure the safety and effectiveness of emergency response action.This paper proposes a spatial-temporal data model to integrate the entity-status-action, for designing the most suitable action strategies in various environmental status by considering all related entities in the indoor fire scenario. Firstly, a list of factors is designed to represent the scenario features including spatial location, semantic description, attribute characteristics, geometric form, evolutionary process, and the relationships among objects. Then, employs an ontology-based descriptive method to integrate multi-dimensions and effectively represents the interrelations among entities, actions, and environmental status within the context of an indoor fire scenario. These environmental status considered in the model focus on the supporting path-planning during execution of direct response actions. Finally, a set of path-planning rules has been developed to infer a series of environmental status supporting to formulate the optimal evacuation strategy to minimize the risk of evacuation failure. The case study shows that the proposed model is effective in unified expression for multitude of factors associated with emergency response in indoor fire scenario and supporting the decision-making of the emergency response actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obstacle removal in crowd evacuation is critical to safety and the evacuation system efficiency. Recently, many researchers proposed game theoreticmodels to avoid and remove obstacles for crowd evacuation. Game theoretical models aim to study and analyze the strategic behaviors of individuals within a crowd and their interactions during the evacuation. Game theoretical models have some limitations in the context of crowd evacuation. These models consider a group of individuals as homogeneous objects with the same goals, involve complex mathematical formulation, and cannot model real-world scenarios such as panic, environmental information, crowds that move dynamically, etc. The proposed work presents a game theoretic model integrating an agent-based model to remove the obstacles from exits. The proposed model considered the parameters named: (1) obstacle size, length, and width, (2) removal time, (3) evacuation time, (4) crowd density, (5) obstacle identification, and (6) route selection. The proposed work conducts various experiments considering different conditions, such as obstacle types, obstacle removal, and several obstacles. Evaluation results show the proposed model's effectiveness compared with existing literature in reducing the overall evacuation time, cell selection, and obstacle removal. The study is potentially useful for public safety situations such as emergency evacuations during disasters and calamities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural health monitoring is conducted to ensure the structural integrity of a building during earthquakes. This study aimed to improve our understanding of the dynamic response of buildings subjected to a series of earthquake excitations, focusing on interpreting structural dynamic characteristics and identifying potential seismic damage subjected to a series of earthquake excitations. To this end, a series of seismic response data of a 13‐story reinforced‐concrete/steel building were collected through long‐term monitoring over 2 years. A systematic approach for monitoring the health of the building was established by integrating several algorithms for vibration‐based (both output‐only and input–output parametric nonparametric feature‐discrimination algorithms) and model‐based feature extraction techniques. Furthermore, the time‐varying dynamic characteristics of the building were determined, including its modal frequency, mode shape, and stiffness, as extracted from features obtained over the monitoring period of 2 years. Safety assessment of this newly compound high‐rise building is investigated to explore the system dynamic characteristics through long‐term seismic monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walking speed is a significant aspect of evacuation efficiency, and this speed varies during fire emergencies due to individual physical abilities. However, in evacuations, it is not always possible to keep an upright posture, hence atypical postures, such as stoop walking or crawling, may be required for survival. In this study, a novel 3D passive vision-aided inertial system (3D PVINS) for indoor positioning was used to track the movement of 20 volunteers during an evacuation in a low visibility environment. Participants' walking speeds using trunk flexion, trunk–knee flexion, and upright postures were measured. The investigations were carried out under emergency and non-emergency scenarios in vertical and horizontal directions, respectively. Results show that different moving directions led to a roughly 43.90% speed reduction, while posture accounted for over 17%. Gender, one of the key categories in evacuation models, accounted for less than 10% of the differences in speed. The speeds of participants under emergency scenarios when compared to non-emergency scenarios was also found to increase by 53.92–60% when moving in the horizontal direction, and by about 48.28–50% when moving in the vertical direction and descending downstairs. Our results also support the social force theory of the warming-up period, as well as the effect of panic on the facilitating occupants' moving speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cellular automata (CA) model has been a meaningful way to study pedestrian evacuation during emergencies, such as fires, for many years. Although the time step used in the CA model is one of the most essential elements, there is a lack of research on its impact on evacuation time. In this paper, we set different time step sizes in an extended cellular automaton model and discuss the effect of time step size on the overall evacuation time under different emergency types and levels. For a fixed step time mode, the larger the time step, the longer the evacuation time. In each time step size, the evacuation time gradually increases with the increase of emergency level, and there is a sharp increase when the time for pedestrians to move one step is exactly an integer multiple of the time step. When there is no friction between pedestrians, the evacuation time at each time step first decreases slightly with the increase of emergency level and then remains unchanged; the larger the time step, when the evacuation time remains unchanged, the lower the emergency level and the greater the evacuation time. For the variable time step model, when the friction between pedestrians approaches infinity, the total evacuation time does not change with the emergency level; when the friction between pedestrians is reduced, the total evacuation time slightly decreases with the increase of the emergency level. The less friction there is, the more significant the reduction. The results of previous actual experiments are also reflected in the simulation at a lower emergency level. The result shows that the time step size significantly impacts the evacuation simulation results of the CA model, and researchers should choose carefully to obtain more realistic simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the critical egress parameters that influence emergency evacuation in a typical hospital building. A parametric study of a 20-story hospital building is conducted using a computer model "Pathfinder" to simulate the evacuation efficiency and assess the influencing parameters. The main egress parameters that influence the evacuation efficiency, including the location of stairways, number of stairways, location of the fire, exit width, and number of low-speed occupants are varied. Two scenarios are simulated: one being the regular (practice) evacuation drill and the other is the actual fire drill. The result shows that the location of stairways significantly affects the total evacuation time with the optimal stairway arrangement consisting of one stairway outside the core of the building. Similarly, the story level at which the fire occurs is another key parameter with fires at lower levels being critical to dictating the evacuation time in a hospital building. The total evacuation time when the fire occurs between the third and sixth floor is found to be 170 min which is 36% and 15% higher than fires at the top story levels (15–18th floor) and the intermediate story levels (9–12th floor), respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the Conservative Member of Parliament and Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg complained on London's LBC radio that the 72 victims of the 2017 Grenfell fire did not use common sense and simply leave the building, and that he could not understand how it had 'anything to do with race or class', he fell into a trap which is now at least 150 years old. This has seen the art and act of evacuating – especially tall buildings – blamed on the evacuees themselves. It is also revealing of an aesthetics of erasure which silences a classed, raced and gendered politics which has served to render certain subjects and bodies as not only victims, but culpable. The vertical evacuee has been considered too slow, too big, too indecisive, too passionate, too weak, too much, too many – too inadequate. In this paper, and in building on a wider politics of verticality and mobility, I pull on several threads of the gendered and raced geographies of high-rise vertical evacuation focusing particularly on the solidaristic movements and expressions of the workers. The paper explores the history of tall building evacuations, focusing on early high-rise factory fires, their investigation, and subsequent changes to fire regulation, building technologies and working practices in North America which affected predominantly young, female and migrant working labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety accidents frequently occur in university laboratories, making the evacuation of students from multiple exits a critical issue. In order to address this concern, we utilized the AnyLogic software to simulate a university laboratory environment. By quantifying the degree of awareness, representing safety education, safety training, and familiarity, we enhanced the expected speed within the primary social force model. Expanding on this foundation, we investigated various exit layouts and conducted experiments to develop an optimization scheme that evenly distributes exit locations and improves exit width. The objective of this approach was to resolve the problem of imbalanced utilization rates in multi-exit laboratories. The simulation results demonstrate that increased awareness not only enhances students' expected speed but also reduces evacuation time. Moreover, by implementing appropriate exit spacing and width settings, we were able to not only evenly distribute students but also alleviate congestion at exits, effectively resolving the issue of imbalanced exit utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the analysis of electrodermal activity (EDA) in the context of students' scholastic activity. Taking a multidisciplinary, citizen science and maker-centric approach, low-cost, bespoken wearables, such as a mini weather station and biometric wristband, were built. To investigate both physical health as well as stress, the instruments were first validated against research grade devices. Following this, a research experiment was created and conducted in the context of students' scholastic activity. Data from this experiment were used to train machine learning models, which were then applied to interpret the relationships between the environment, health, and stress. It is hoped that analyses of EDA data will further strengthen the emerging model describing the intersections between local microclimate and physiological and neurological stress. The results suggest that temperature and air quality play an important role in students' physiological well-being, thus demonstrating the feasibility of understanding the extent of the effects of various microclimatic factors. This highlights the importance of thermal comfort and air ventilation in real-life applications to improve students' well-being. We envision our work making a significant impact by showcasing the effectiveness and feasibility of inexpensive, self-designed wearable devices for tracking microclimate and electrodermal activity (EDA). The affordability of these wearables holds promising implications for scalability and encourages crowd-sourced citizen science in the relatively unexplored domain of microclimate's influence on well-being. Embracing citizen science can then democratize learning and expedite rapid research advancements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]