Airport Evacuation Strategies for Passengers with Reduced Mobility: Simulation of Structural Configurations

Airport emergency cases are becoming more common; therefore, it becomes extremely important to have good emergency and evacuation protocols that are easily and quickly applied so the number of the affected is minimized. The simulation of these emergencies is important to implement evacuation plans and evaluate them. Evacuation plans are often idealized to passengers that in case of emergency are self-sufficient, able to physically attend themselves in their evacuation from the airport, not being optimized for passengers with reduced mobility that require assistance from others, and thus more time for evacuation. This study aims to understand and identify key issues about how passengers with reduced mobility are considered in current evacuation plans and also understand which possible solutions exist to optimize their evacuation. For that, it was performed an airport evacuation simulation using an egress simulation tool and obtained results that allow us to observe that when passengers with mobility impairments have egress routes and exits different from the other occupants, evacuation times decrease. Therefore, both groups of occupants may egress faster and through less congested doors.As situações de emergência em aeroportos são cada vez mais frequentes; sendo assim, tornase extremamente importante ter bons planos de evacuação de fácil e rápida implementação de maneira a que o número de afetados seja mínimo. A simulação destas situações de emergência é importante para implementar e avaliar planos de evacuação. Estes planos são frequentemente idealizados para passageiros que, em caso de emergência são autosuficientes, fisicamente capazes de abandonar o edifício sem ajuda de outros, não sendo otimizados para passageiros com mobilidade reduzida que requerem a assistência de outros e, portanto, mais tempo para a sua evacuação. Este estudo tem como objetivo compreender e identificar as principais questões no que diz respeito à forma como os passageiros com mobilidade reduzida são considerados nos planos de evacuação atuais e também entender que soluções possíveis existem para otimizar a sua evacuação. Para isso, foram realizadas simulações de evacuação de um terminal de aeroporto, utilizando uma ferramenta de simulação de evacuação e obtiveram-se resultados que permitem observar que, quando os passageiros com dificuldades de mobilidade têm rotas de evacuação e utilizam saídas diferentes dos outros ocupantes, os tempos de evacuação diminuem. Por conseguinte, ambos os grupos de ocupantes são evacuados mais rapidamente e por saídas menos congestionadas

Best Practice for Casualty Simulation - Role-playing Actor, High Fidelity Mannequin Simulation, or Virtual Reality?

Objective: The purpose of this systemic review of the literature is to determine the best practice with regards to simulating casualties during a disaster response exercise. Methods: MEDLINE was searched from 1950 till present for the key terms of disaster, simulation, and emergency preparedness. Articles were included which met the following criteria: English language, human subjects, original research using any research design (with or without intervention), and primary focus of disaster preparedness using simulation, virtual reality, or role playing actors. Results: Of the 386 articles reviewed only 18 met inclusion criteria. The literature is primarily descriptive in nature with regards to simulation in disaster preparedness. Seven articles (38%) were analytical in study design with the rest being observational or descriptive. The populations varied widely among the included articles ranging from participants at a formal training class to medical students to residents and finally nurses and full trained physicians. The majority of studies including the analytical ones used convenience sampling. These articles were assigned a level of evidence and best practice recommendations and conclusions were then determined. Conclusions: The results show that virtual reality and high-fidelity mannequin based simulation are at least equivalent to the traditional full scale exercise. In addition, both modalities have the advantage of allowing invasive procedures to be performed as well as giving a more realistic time frame experience for the participant. These modalities can be incorporated into future disaster response drills in order to complement each individual modalities strengths and weaknesses

Design of a VR-based training system for the evacuation of an engineering laboratory building

Según la Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres, 12.896 personas han sido afectadas por incendios estructurales en Colombia en los últimos años. Para reducir las consecuencias de estos desastres se han propuesto diferentes estrategias, como los simulacros de evacuación. Sin embargo, se ha demostrado que las metodologías tradicionales no son tan efectivas porque carecen de un componente práctico. Por ello, este proyecto propone y diseña un sistema de entrenamiento para realizar una evacuación ante la presencia de un posible incendio estructural utilizando la realidad virtual. El escenario seleccionado para este ejercicio corresponde al edificio de laboratorios de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá. Dada su reciente apertura y la emergencia sanitaria generada por el SARS-CoV-2, no se han realizado simulacros de evacuación desde su inauguración. Para el desarrollo de la propuesta se seleccionaron inicialmente las herramientas de software y hardware con las que se realizó el experimento. Esta selección se realizó teniendo en cuenta los criterios de la Norma ISO 25010 y se utilizó la metodología AHP basada en la opinión de algunos expertos en la materia. A continuación, se diseñaron dos aplicaciones, la primera correspondía al escenario de aprendizaje, en el que los participantes se adaptaban al entorno virtual. La segunda fue la aplicación principal que contenía la simulación de la emergencia. Posteriormente, se obtuvo un tamaño de muestra de 67 personas, que debían pertenecer a la Facultad de Ingeniería. Por último, se llevó a cabo la aplicación del experimento, en la que se utilizaron encuestas como método de recogida de datos. Además, se registraron algunos tiempos relacionados con el desempeño de los participantes.Una vez finalizada la aplicación del experimento, se utilizó el programa Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS versión 28.0) para analizar los datos recogidos. Las principales pruebas estadísticas realizadas fueron: U de Mann Withney, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, entre otras. Cabe destacar que se tuvo en cuenta un nivel de confianza del 95% para los respectivos análisis. Se encontró una diferencia significativa entre el tiempo medio empleado por hombres y mujeres en el experimento. Además, la percepción de los participantes mejoró en factores como el realismo de la evacuación, la motivación, el conocimiento y el interés en la prevención de desastres. Asimismo, el 97,1% de los participantes prefirió la metodología de evacuación propuesta a la tradicional tradicionales.La aplicación del concepto de juegos serios integrados con la realidad virtual mejora significativamente el aprendizaje de los participantes al generar un mayor nivel de inmersión en la emergencia. Teniendo en cuenta el tiempo medio que tardaron los participantes en aprender el sistema de evacuación del edificio con la aplicación desarrollada, se obtuvo un impacto positivo en áreas como: productividad, economía, cultura, salud y tecnología. Lo anterior demostró que la metodología propuesta tiene mayores ventajas sobre los simulacros tradicionales que se han aplicado hasta ahora.According to the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, 12,896 people have been affected by structural fires in Colombia in recent years. In order to reduce the consequences of these disasters, different strategies have been proposed, such as evacuation drills. However, it has been shown that traditional methodologies are not as effective because they lack a practical component. For this reason, this project proposes and designs a training system to perform an evacuation due to the presence of a possible structural fire using virtual reality. The scenario selected for this exercise corresponds to the laboratory building of the Faculty of Engineering of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá. Given its recent opening and the health emergency generated by SARS-CoV-2, evacuation drills have not been carried out since its inauguration. In order to develop the proposal, the software and hardware tools with which the experiment was carried out were initially selected. This selection was made taking into account the criteria of the ISO 25010 Standard and the AHP methodology was used based on the opinion of some experts in the area. Then, two applications were designed, the first one corresponded to the learning scenario, in which the participants adapted to the virtual environment. The second was the main application containing the emergency simulation. Subsequently, a sample size of 67 people was obtained, who had to belong to the Faculty of Engineering. Finally, the application of the experiment was carried out, in which surveys were used as a method of data collection. Also, some times related to the performance of the participants were recorded. Once the application of the experiment was completed, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 28.0 version) software was used to analyze the data collected. The main statistical tests performed were: U by Mann Withney, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, among others. It should be noted that a confidence level of 95% was taken into account for the respective analyses. A significant difference was found between the mean time spent by men and women in the experiment. Also, the perception of the participants improved in factors such as the realism of the evacuation, motivation, knowledge and interest in disaster prevention. Likewise, 97.1% of the participants preferred the proposed evacuation methodology to the traditional ones. The application of the concept of serious games integrated with virtual reality significantly improves participants' learning by generating a higher level of immersion in the emergency. Given the average time it took the participants to learn the evacuation system of the building with the developed application, a positive impact was obtained in areas such as: productivity, economy, culture, health and technology. The above showed that the proposed methodology has greater advantages over traditional drills that have been applied so far.Ingeniero (a) IndustrialPregrad

Applying the lessons of the attack on the World Trade Center, 11th September 2001, to the design and use of interactive evacuation simulations

The collapse of buildings, such as terminal 2E at Paris' Charles de Gaule Airport, and of fires, such as the Rhode Island, Station Night Club tragedy, has focused public attention on the safety of large public buildings. Initiatives in the United States and in Europe have led to the development of interactive simulators that model evacuation from these buildings. The tools avoid some of the ethical and legal problems from simulating evacuations; many people were injured during the 1993 evacuation of the World Trade Center (WTC) complex. They also use many concepts that originate within the CHI communities. For instance, some simulators use simple task models to represent the occupants' goal structures as they search for an available exit. However, the recent release of the report from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (the '9/11 commission') has posed serious questions about the design and use of this particular class of interactive systems. This paper argues that simulation research needs to draw on insights from the CHI communities in order to meet some the challenges identified by the 9/11 commission

Lessons from the evacuation of the World Trade Center, Sept 11th 2001 for the future development of computer simulations

This paper provides an overview of the state of the art in evacuation simulations. These interactive computer based tools have been developed to help the owners and designers of large public buildings to assess the risks that occupants might face during emergency egress. The development of the Glasgow Evacuation Simulator is used to illustrate the existing generation of tools. This system uses Monte Carlo techniques to control individual and group movements during an evacuation. The end-user can interactively open and block emergency exits at any point. It is also possible to alter the priorities that individuals associate with particular exit routes. A final benefit is that the tool can derive evacuation simulations directly from existing architects models; this reduces the cost of simulations and creates a more prominent role for these tools in the iterative development of large-scale public buildings. Empirical studies have been used to validate the GES system as a tool to support evacuation training. The development of these tools has been informed by numerous human factors studies and by recent accident investigations. For example, the 2003 fire in the Station nightclub in Rhode Island illustrated the way in which most building occupants retrace their steps to an entrance even when there are alternate fire exits. The second half of this paper uses this introduction to criticise the existing state of the art in evacuation simulations. These criticisms are based on a detailed study of the recent findings from the 9/11 Commission (2004). Ten different lessons are identified. Some relate to the need to better understand the role of building management and security systems in controlling egress from public buildings. Others relate to the human factors involved in coordinating distributed groups of emergency personnel who may be physically exhausted by the demands of an evacuation. Arguably the most important findings centre on the need to model the ingress and egress of emergency personnel from these structures. The previous focus of nearly all-existing simulation tools has been on the evacuation of building occupants rather than on the safety of first responders1

Perspectives Volume 4: Number 1, Winter-Spring 2016

https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hpd_hcs_magazine/1006/thumbnail.jp

Computer simulation in mass emergency and disaster response: An evaluation of its effectiveness as a tool for demonstrating strategic competency in emergency department medical responders

This study examined the capability of computer simulation as a tool for assessing the strategic competency of emergency department nurses as they responded to authentically computer simulated biohazard-exposed patient case studies. Thirty registered nurses from a large, urban hospital completed a series of computer-simulated case studies of virtual biohazard-exposed patients. The completed case studies were assessed by the host computer according to computer-programmed criteria. The same case studies were also assessed by a trio of emergency medicine physicians acting as subject matter experts according to their own criteria. The results of this study demonstrated a significant correlation between computer-assessed and physician-assessed simulation exercises against pre-determined performance objective criteria. The data suggests computer simulation can play an important role in emergency and disaster response that offers readily accessible cost-effective training where the opportunity for hands-on practice is limited or impractical. In addition, use of computer simulation can make an effective evaluation of emergency response preparedness possible at more frequent intervals and with greater efficiency

Evaluation of medical response in disaster preparedness : with special reference to full-scale exercises

Background: Disaster exercises and simulations serves as teaching and training tool for improving medical response in disaster preparedness. Rapid and effective medical response in major incidents is known as a “key phase” to optimise resources, and this requires that management systems have an “all hazards” approach. Decision-making at all levels of management is based on available information and involves allocation of medical resources and triage decisions. Aim: The overall aim of this thesis was to increase our knowledge of the impact of quantitative evaluation of medical response on disaster preparedness. The specific aims were: to increase the ability to learn from full-scale exercises by applying quality indicators at two levels of command and control (I, II); to identify key indicators essential for initial disaster medical response registration (III); to explore ambulance staff attitudes towards practising triage tagging (IV); and to increase our knowledge of the applicability of a technical support system and its potential to provide real-time, overall situation awareness available to those overseeing the medical management of the operation. Methods: Study I, II and V were observational studies based on data collections from full-scale exercises. Templates with measurable performance indicators for evaluation of command and control were used in Study I and II and the same performance indicators combined with outcome indicators was also included in Study II. A consensus method, the Delphi technique, with 30 experts was used in Study III. Study IV used mixed methods, a pre-and post web survey answered by ambulance nurses and physicians (n=57 respectively 57) before and after a time limited strategy with triage tags and three focus groups interviews comprising 21 ambulance nurses and emergency medical technicians. Study V used major two incidents simulations to test the applicability of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID tags) technology and compare it with traditionally paper-based triage tags (n= 20 respectively 20). The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and content analysis was used for the qualitative data. Results: The evaluation model exposed several problems occurring in the initial decision-making process that were repeatedly observed (I, II). These results in study II also demonstrated to have a major impact on patient outcome.Out of 17 severely injured patients five respectively seven were at risk for preventable death. A total of 97 statements were generated, of these 77 statements reached experts consensus, and 20 did not (III). Ambulance staffs believe in the usefulness of standardised triage methods, but the sparse application of triage tags at the scene indicates that the tags are not used frequently. Infrequent use in daily practice prevents participants from feeling confident with the triage tool (IV).The Radio Frequency Identification system improved situational awareness in disaster management. Triage information was available at least one hour earlier compared to a paper-based triage system (V). Conclusions: The presented evaluation model can be used in an objective, systematic and reproducible way to evaluate complex medical responses, which is a prerequisite for quality assurance, identification of problems, and the development of disaster preparedness

Exitus: An Agent-Based Evacuation Simulation Model For Heterogeneous Populations

Evacuation planning for private-sector organizations is an important consideration given the continuing occurrence of both natural and human-caused disasters that inordinately affect them. Unfortunately, the traditional management approach that is focused on fire drills presents several practical challenges at the scale required for many organizations but especially those responsible for national critical infrastructure assets such as airports and sports arenas. In this research we developed Exitus, a comprehensive decision support system that may be used to simulate large-scale evacuations of such structures. The system is unique because it considers individuals with disabilities explicitly in terms of physical and psychological attributes. It is also capable of classifying the environment in terms of accessibility characteristics encompassing various conditions that have been shown to have a disproportionate effect upon the behavior of individuals with disabilities during an emergency. The system was applied to three unique test beds: a multi-story office building, an international airport, and a major sports arena. Several simulation experiments revealed specific areas of concern for both building managers and management practice in general. In particular, we were able to show (a) how long evacuations of heterogeneous populations may be expected to last, (b) who the most vulnerable groups of people are, (c) the risk engendered from particular design features for individuals with disabilities, and (d) the potential benefits from adopting alternate evacuation strategies, among others. Considered together, the findings provide a useful foundation for the development of best practices and policies addressing the evacuation concerns surrounding heterogeneous populations in large, complex environments. Ultimately, a capabilities based approach featuring both tactical and strategic planning with an eye toward the unique problems presented by individuals with disabilities is recommended

A holistic model of emergency evacuations in large, complex, public occupancy buildings

Evacuations are crucial for ensuring the safety of building occupants in the event of an emergency. In large, complex, public occupancy buildings (LCPOBs) these procedures are significantly more complex than the simple withdrawal of people from a building. This thesis has developed a novel, holistic, theoretical model of emergency evacuations in LCPOBs inspired by systems safety theory. LCPOBs are integral components of complex socio-technical systems, and therefore the model describes emergency evacuations as control actions initiated in order to return the building from an unsafe state to a safe state where occupants are not at risk of harm. The emergency evacuation process itself is comprised of four aspects - the movement (of building occupants), planning and management, environmental features, and evacuee behaviour. To demonstrate its utility and applicability, the model has been employed to examine various aspects of evacuation procedures in two example LCPOBs - airport terminals, and sports stadiums. The types of emergency events initiating evacuations in these buildings were identified through a novel hazard analysis procedure, which utilised online news articles to create events databases of previous evacuations. Security and terrorism events, false alarms, and fires were found to be the most common cause of evacuations in these buildings. The management of evacuations was explored through model-based systems engineering techniques, which identified the communication methods and responsibilities of staff members managing these events. Social media posts for an active shooting event were analysed using qualitative and machine learning methods to determine their utility for situational awareness. This data source is likely not informative for this purpose, as few posts detail occupant behaviours. Finally, an experimental study on pedestrian dynamics with movement devices was conducted, which determined that walking speeds during evacuations were unaffected by evacuees dragging luggage, but those pushing pushchairs and wheelchairs will walk significantly slower.Open Acces