Lessons Learned from Modeling the Evacuation of a Suburban University Campus

摘要

University campuses can be at risk during natural and man-made disasters because of the concentration of population and buildings. During emergency situations, traffic congestion may occur because of high traffic volumes and vehicle-pedestrian conflicts. Evacuation modeling and planning can aid in guiding the vehicles and pedestrians to safety, in the shortest time possible. To that end, a case study was conducted on an evacuation scenario at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, an isolated campus in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The researchers used the model to predict total clearance time, identify problematic locations, and evaluate low-cost operational improvements. Although the evacuation was expected to produce large volumes of pedestrians crossing a key evacuation link, it was found that vehicle-pedestrian conflicts at these locations did not have a significant effect on the overall evacuation period because the timing of these flows was offset.