Improving Fire Emergency Management Using Occupant Information and BIM-Based Simulation

The increasing complexity of buildings has brought some difficulties for emergency response. When fires occur in a building, limited perception regarding the disaster area and occupants can increase the probability of injuries and damages. Thus, the availability of comprehensive and timely information may help understand the existing conditions and plan an efficient evacuation. For this purpose, Building Information Modeling (BIM) should be integrated with three sets of information: (1) occupancy that defines the type of space usage; (2) occupants’ information; and (3) sensory data. The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), as a standard of BIM, has the definitions for all areas, volumes, and elements of a building. IFC also has the basic definitions of sensor and occupant entities. However, these entities do not provide enough dynamic and accurate information for supporting emergency management systems. In addition, building renovation projects have an effect on evacuation time. During the building renovation projects, space is shared between the construction crews and occupants. The construction works change the building layout and movement flow, which increase the occupants’ vulnerability, affecting their evacuation behavior under emergency conditions. Hence, the safety and wellbeing of the occupants as well as their evacuation time should be considered under emergency incidents. This thesis aims to improve fire emergency management using occupant information and BIM-based simulation. For this purpose, a “dynamic BIM” for fire emergency real-time management is developed that captures enough dynamism regarding the building condition as well as environmental conditions and occupants’ behavior. Also, an Agent-Based Model (ABM) is used to assist in the analysis of the static and dynamic behavior of the environment and occupants in BIM. The specific objectives of the research are: (1) extending IfcSensor entity for occupant’s sensors; (2) adding new attributes to IfcOccupant to support emergency response operations and defining a new entity for occupancy; (3) defining the relationships between sensors, occupants, occupancy, time series, and building components in the context of building evacuation; (4) creating dynamic BIM for tracking occupants and environmental states; and (5) evaluating the evacuation time for specific scenarios where additional spatio-temporal constraints exist during a fire incidence. Renovation construction operations are considered as such constraint and an ABM co-simulation framework is developed under emergency conditions. The feasibility of the proposed methods is discussed using different case studies

Territorial governance and climate adaptation. Towards an environmental perspective of urban regeneration

The literature, the scientific and disciplinary debate and the growing awareness on the part of national and international bodies of the impact of climate change on the territory (European Green Deal, 2019, Horizon Europe 2021-2027) have highlighted, in recent years, the need for climate-proof policies, strategies, tools and actions as a goal to be achieved through the updating and innovation of spatial government tools, according to an integrated and inter-scalar approach for the construction of urban regeneration strategies in coherence with the objectives of the European Strategy on adaptation to climate change (EU, 2021) and the addresses of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2015) and the Climate Conference (COP26, 2021). This scenario is reflected in the most recent EU programming and policies and is, moreover, a transversal objective of the PNRR (Mission 5 Inclusion and Cohesion (Urban Regeneration and Social Housing), as well as of the PNR 2021/2027 (AT 2 Humanistic Culture, Creativity, Social Transformation, Inclusive Society in close correlation with AT 5 Climate and AT 6 Environment). In this context, the contribution presents some of the results of the research activities carried out by the authors that highlight, starting from the analysis of national and international planning experiences and best practices, the urgency of defining new perspectives and new theoretical-methodological and operational references for an innovative planning system, as a tool for a sustainable and resilient regeneration of contemporary cities and territories, at the supra-municipal, municipal and local scale, with significant impacts on mitigation and adaptation to the effects of climate change

Towards effective evacuation procedures in disaster management (Dm): Simulation modelling and governance strategies

Natural catastrophes and disasters may cause the destruction of infrastructure and personal property. In order to reduce the effects of such tragedies, the effectiveness of the evacuation procedures is essential. Effective evacuation procedures, however, also depend on governance issues in addition to technical aspects like infrastructure and communication. This paper intends to review on how governance, and evacuation protocols relate to emergency preparedness and disaster management (DM). Thus, this study explores the use of agent-based and social force theory in developing evacuation simulation models that incorporate evacuation governance strategies. Practitioners and policymakers can better understand the elements that determine the effectiveness of evacuation procedures and create more efficient methods for disaster management and emergency response by modelling human behaviour in disaster circumstances. The policy is an illustration of how governance elements can be integrated into evacuation procedures and guidelines for effective DM. Thus, the expected result for this study emphasises the significance of governance for policymakers and practitioners in the execution of evacuation procedures

A Review of Platforms for the Development of Agent Systems

Agent-based computing is an active field of research with the goal of building autonomous software of hardware entities. This task is often facilitated by the use of dedicated, specialized frameworks. For almost thirty years, many such agent platforms have been developed. Meanwhile, some of them have been abandoned, others continue their development and new platforms are released. This paper presents a up-to-date review of the existing agent platforms and also a historical perspective of this domain. It aims to serve as a reference point for people interested in developing agent systems. This work details the main characteristics of the included agent platforms, together with links to specific projects where they have been used. It distinguishes between the active platforms and those no longer under development or with unclear status. It also classifies the agent platforms as general purpose ones, free or commercial, and specialized ones, which can be used for particular types of applications.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figures, 9 tables, 83 reference

Mission-Critical Communications from LMR to 5G: a Technology Assessment approach for Smart City scenarios

Radiocommunication networks are one of the main support tools of agencies that carry out actions in Public Protection & Disaster Relief (PPDR), and it is necessary to update these communications technologies from narrowband to broadband and integrated to information technologies to have an effective action before society. Understanding that this problem includes, besides the technical aspects, issues related to the social context to which these systems are inserted, this study aims to construct scenarios, using several sources of information, that helps the managers of the PPDR agencies in the technological decisionmaking process of the Digital Transformation of Mission-Critical Communication considering Smart City scenarios, guided by the methods and approaches of Technological Assessment (TA).As redes de radiocomunicações são uma das principais ferramentas de apoio dos órgãos que realizam ações de Proteção Pública e Socorro em desastres, sendo necessário atualizar essas tecnologias de comunicação de banda estreita para banda larga, e integra- las às tecnologias de informação, para se ter uma atuação efetiva perante a sociedade . Entendendo que esse problema inclui, além dos aspectos técnicos, questões relacionadas ao contexto social ao qual esses sistemas estão inseridos, este estudo tem por objetivo a construção de cenários, utilizando diversas fontes de informação que auxiliem os gestores destas agências na tomada de decisão tecnológica que envolve a transformação digital da Comunicação de Missão Crítica considerando cenários de Cidades Inteligentes, guiado pelos métodos e abordagens de Avaliação Tecnológica (TA)