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The introduction of social adaptation within evacuation modelling
Author(s) -
Gwynne S.,
Galea E. R.,
Lawrence P. J.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
fire and materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-1018
pISSN - 0308-0501
DOI - 10.1002/fam.913
Subject(s) - perception , adaptation (eye) , emergency evacuation , population , selection (genetic algorithm) , mechanism (biology) , poison control , computer security , computer science , operations research , risk analysis (engineering) , psychology , engineering , sociology , business , geography , medicine , medical emergency , artificial intelligence , demography , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience , meteorology
In recent history, a number of tragic events have borne a consistent message; the social structures that existed prior to and during the evacuation significantly affected the decisions made and the actions adopted by the evacuating population in response to the emergency. This type of influence over behaviour has long been neglected in the modelling community. This paper is an attempt to introduce some of these considerations into evacuation models and to demonstrate their impact. To represent this type of behaviour within evacuation models a mechanism to represent the membership and position within social hierarchies is established. In addition, individuals within the social groupings are given the capacity to communicate relevant pieces of data such as the need to evacuate—impacting the response time—and the location of viable exits—impacting route selection. Furthermore, the perception and response to this information is also affected by the social circumstances in which individuals find themselves. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.