A NEW APPROACH IN THE DESIGN OF EVACUATION/ACCESS ROUTES USING A FULLY CONSERVATIVE 2D MODEL

River floods are historically recognised as probably the most devastating and frequent natural disaster for human communities. Without any doubt river floods could be identified as one of the principal causes of loss of human life and economic damage worldwide. Several studies show that flood risk is expected to become of even more concern in the future due to the combined effects of climate change, increasing anthropization in flood prone areas and increase of world’s population. This research aims to reduce the risk to humans during extreme events, acquiring a better understanding of human stability in flood water. The numerical model used is DIVAST-TVD, which includes shock capturing features and has been applied to simulate flood event in the short and steep catchment of Bostcastle (UK). The model is integrated with a novel formula for human stability of different body characteristics based on experimental and theoretical work. A complete and reliable model has been obtained and can be used for better design of the evacuation/access routes in case of flood events. In this way not only flood characteristics are considered, but also human body characteristics