SAFEgress: a flexible platform to study the effect of human and social behaviors on egress performance

Studies of past emergency events have revealed that occupant behavior, local geometry, and environmental constraints affect crowd movement and govern evacuation. Occupants' social characteristics and the unique layout of buildings should be considered to ensure that egress systems can handle evacuee behavior. This paper describes an agent-based egress simulation tool, SAFEgress, which is designed to incorporate human and social behaviors during evacuations. Simulation results on two scenarios are presented. The first scenario illustrates the effects of the exiting strategies adopted by occupants on evacuation. The second scenario shows the influence of social group behavior on evacuations. By assuming different behaviors using this prototype, engineers, designers, and facility managers can study the important human factors during an emergency situation and thereby improve the design of safe egress systems and procedures.

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