The UK WTC9/11 Evacuation Study: An Overview of the Methodologies Employed and Some Preliminary Analysis

Galea, Edwin R.; Hulse, Lynn; Day, Rachel; Siddiqui, Asim; Sharp, Gary; Boyce, Karen; Summerfield, L; Canter, David; Marselle, Melisa; Greenall, Paul V.

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-04504-2_1

Cited by 26 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Investigations of actual accidents (Averill et al 2005;Galea et al 2008a) showed that evacuees may need to interrupt their journey due to fatigue, causing an additional delay in the evacuation process. This problem will become more evident over the years since the physical abilities of occupants is gradually reducing (due to changing demographics) (Spearpoint and MacLennan 2012).…”

Section: Stairsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evacuation models have been employed to reconstruct the evacuation process and assess the key variables affecting the egress performance of the building. Galea et al (2008b) used buildingEXODUS to approximate the evacuation of the North Tower of the WTC. The study used the response data obtained by the survivor accounts ) and the population of the building is derived from the formal investigation made by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Averill et al 2005).…”

Section: Modelling Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The event resulted in a paradigm shift in the assessment of high-rise building safety. In fact, it showed the importance of providing robust means of egress and the need for a detailed investigation of the interactions between the infrastructure, the procedures and the behaviour of the occupants (Galea et al 2008a;2008b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire evacuation in high-rise buildings: a review of human behaviour and modelling research

2013

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A review of literature related to fire evacuation in high-rise buildings was carried out with the following objectives, (1) to identify the key behavioural factors affecting the performance of people during a fire in a high-rise building, the singularities associated to this type of buildings and areas of future research; (2) to review the procedures and strategies currently adopted in high-rise buildings; (3) to review and analyse the capabilities of evacuation models by reviewing their current characteristics and applications in the context of high-rise building evacuations. The review included both findings on human behaviour in high-rise buildings and modelling techniques and tools. Different categories of building use were taken into account, namely office buildings, residential buildings and health care facilities. The individual or combined use of different egress components was analysed. Egress components include the use of stairs, elevators as well as alternative means of escape (e.g., sky-bridges, helicopters, etc.). The effectiveness of the egress components is strongly affected by the building use and the population involved. The review shows that evacuation models can be effectively employed to study relocation strategies and safety issues associated with high-rise buildings. The suitability of egress models for high-rise building evacuations is associated with their flexibility in representing different egress components and complex behavioural processes. The review highlights that there is not a definitive model to be used but that the predictive capabilities of evacuation modelling techniques would be enhanced if more than one model is employed to study different egress aspects. Future research and model developments should focus on the study of the impact of staff actions, group dynamics and people with disabilities. Given the increasing height of buildings and the gradual reduction in the physical abilities of the population, the effects of fatigue on evacuation need further studies.

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Section: Stairsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Modelling Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire evacuation in high-rise buildings: a review of human behaviour and modelling research

2013

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“…Following 9/11 several projects were initiated around the world to study the evacuation of the WTC 1–3. Project HEED 4–13—High‐rise Evacuation Evaluation Database—was a 3.5‐year collaboration between the Universities of Greenwich (led by Prof. Ed Galea who was also the project principal investigator, with team members, Ms Rachel Day, Dr Lynn Hulse, Mr Gary Sharp and Mr Asim Siddiqui), Ulster (led by Prof. Jim Shields, with team members Dr Karen Boyce and Ms Louise Summerfield) and Liverpool (led by Prof. David Canter, with team members Ms Melissa Marselle and Mr Paul Greenall) funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC‐project GR/S74201/01 and EP/D507790). As part of project HEED some 271 evacuees from the twin towers were interviewed generating almost 6000 pages of transcript.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The UK WTC 9/11 evacuation study: an overview of findings derived from first‐hand interview data and computer modelling

et al. 2011

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SUMMARY This paper briefly describes the methodologies employed in the collection and storage of first‐hand accounts of evacuation experiences derived from face‐to‐face interviews with evacuees from the World Trade Centre (WTC) Twin Towers complex on 11 September 2001 and the development of the High‐rise Evacuation Evaluation Database (HEED). The main focus of the paper is to present an overview of the preliminary analysis of data derived from the evacuation of the North Tower with an emphasis on frequency of occupant stoppages on stairs, occupant stair travel speeds and occupant response times. The paper also describes some of the evacuation modelling analyses of the evacuation of the North Tower undertaken as part of project HEED. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…Another method is to compare the data of past disasters at real situations. A detailed report on occupant behavior in the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster has been published and a related study has been carried out by Galea et al [4]. They noted some features that are not supported by existing simulations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Human Relationship Modeling in Agent-Based Crowd Evacuation Simulation

Okaya

Takahashi

2011

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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Abstract. Crowd evacuation simulations are becoming a tool to analyze and assess the safety of occupants in buildings. Agent-based simulation provides a platform on which to compute individual and collective behaviors that occur in crowds. We propose a human behavior model in evacuation based on the Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) model and Helbing's agent behavior model. Human relationships affect the states of BDI at each simulation step, and altruism forces among agents are introduced in Helbing's model to affect agents' intentions in calculating agent movements. Two evacuation scenarios are examined so that the results match quantitatively and qualitatively with past disasters. The simulations reveal typical behaviors in a crowd evacuation; for example, family-minded human behaviors that lead to interactions in the crowd and other behaviors. The simulation indicates that due to the interaction it takes a longer time to evacuate from buildings in actual situations.

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The UK WTC9/11 Evacuation Study: An Overview of the Methodologies Employed and Some Preliminary Analysis

Cited by 26 publications

References 3 publications

Fire evacuation in high-rise buildings: a review of human behaviour and modelling research

Fire evacuation in high-rise buildings: a review of human behaviour and modelling research

The UK WTC 9/11 evacuation study: an overview of findings derived from first‐hand interview data and computer modelling

Human Relationship Modeling in Agent-Based Crowd Evacuation Simulation

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