TY - GEN
T1 - Understanding the Role of Dynamic Risk Perception during Fire Evacuations Using Agent-Based Modeling
AU - Choi, Minji
AU - Park, Moonseo
AU - Lee, Hyun Soo
AU - Hwang, Sungjoo
AU - Anderson, Kyle
AU - Lee, Sanghyun
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© ASCE.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Considering the severe consequences of building fires, evacuation planning is regarded as one of the most important issues in the design and management of facilities. During fires, occupants face significant uncertainty as to the severity of the situation and must continuously interpret new information from various sources (e.g., other occupants and environmental cues). Based on this influx of new information, and in conjunction with the individual's coping capability under duress, the occupant's perceived risk of the fire situation can change during the course of his/her evacuation. Despite the severity of such situations, the role of dynamic risk perception has been overlooked in the literature. Therefore, this research aims to analyze how dynamic risk perception influences evacuation performance through simulation modeling. An agent-based building fire evacuation simulation model and three different scenarios are examined to investigate the following evacuation performance metrics: evacuation rate, response time, and movement time. Our findings showed that after a fire alarm sounded individual perceived risk increased, resulting from observing the behavior of others, thereby initiating expedited evacuation movement. Similarly, increased perceived risk resulting from detecting fire smoke significantly accelerated occupant movement towards the exits. These findings highlight the significant role of dynamic perceived risk on fire evacuation performance. Understanding the importance of perceived risk on evacuation outcomes, facility managers could attempt to manipulate additional information that affects occupant perceived risk during the different stages of fire evacuations to improve evacuation effectiveness and efficiency.
AB - Considering the severe consequences of building fires, evacuation planning is regarded as one of the most important issues in the design and management of facilities. During fires, occupants face significant uncertainty as to the severity of the situation and must continuously interpret new information from various sources (e.g., other occupants and environmental cues). Based on this influx of new information, and in conjunction with the individual's coping capability under duress, the occupant's perceived risk of the fire situation can change during the course of his/her evacuation. Despite the severity of such situations, the role of dynamic risk perception has been overlooked in the literature. Therefore, this research aims to analyze how dynamic risk perception influences evacuation performance through simulation modeling. An agent-based building fire evacuation simulation model and three different scenarios are examined to investigate the following evacuation performance metrics: evacuation rate, response time, and movement time. Our findings showed that after a fire alarm sounded individual perceived risk increased, resulting from observing the behavior of others, thereby initiating expedited evacuation movement. Similarly, increased perceived risk resulting from detecting fire smoke significantly accelerated occupant movement towards the exits. These findings highlight the significant role of dynamic perceived risk on fire evacuation performance. Understanding the importance of perceived risk on evacuation outcomes, facility managers could attempt to manipulate additional information that affects occupant perceived risk during the different stages of fire evacuations to improve evacuation effectiveness and efficiency.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84976427851&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1061/9780784479827.167
DO - 10.1061/9780784479827.167
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84976427851
T3 - Construction Research Congress 2016: Old and New Construction Technologies Converge in Historic San Juan - Proceedings of the 2016 Construction Research Congress, CRC 2016
SP - 1669
EP - 1679
BT - Construction Research Congress 2016
A2 - Perdomo-Rivera, Jose L.
A2 - Lopez del Puerto, Carla
A2 - Gonzalez-Quevedo, Antonio
A2 - Maldonado-Fortunet, Francisco
A2 - Molina-Bas, Omar I.
PB - American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
T2 - Construction Research Congress 2016: Old and New Construction Technologies Converge in Historic San Juan, CRC 2016
Y2 - 31 May 2016 through 2 June 2016
ER -