Flood-pedestrian simulator for modelling human response dynamics during flood-induced evacuation: Hillsborough stadium case study   

Abstract

Abstract. The flood-pedestrian simulator uses a parallel approach to couple a hydrodynamic model to a pedestrian model in a single agent-based modelling (ABM) framework using the Graphical Processing Units (GPU). It allows to dynamically exchange and process multiple agent information between the two models. The simulator is augmented with more realistic human-body characteristics and in-model behavioural rules. The new features are implemented in the pedestrian model to factor in age- and gender-related walking speeds for the pedestrians in dry zones with possible acceleration based on a maximum excitement condition. It is also adapted to use age-related moving speeds for pedestrians inside flooded zones, with 13 either a walking condition or a running condition. The walking and running conditions are applicable without and with an existing two-way interaction condition that considers the effects of pedestrian congestion on the floodwater dynamics. A new autonomous change of direction condition is proposed to make way-finding decisions of pedestrians self-automated, based on the changes in the state of the floodwater dynamics or the most popular choice of destination selected by the other pedestrians. The relevance of the newly added characteristics and rules is demonstrated by applying the augmented simulator to reproduce a flood evacuation in a shopping centre test case, which was investigated with the version of the simulator that does not consider age and gender characteristics in the pedestrian model. The augmented simulator is finally applied to study evacuation scenarios for a mass evacuation from the Hillsborough football stadium located in a flood-prone area in Sheffield.