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Article
Publication date: 12 September 2016

Ryuji Kakimoto and Fumihiko Yamada

The Aso area of Kumamoto Prefecture and the western part of Oita Prefecture in Japan experienced heavy rainfall from midnight until morning on 12 July 2012. Flooding and…

Abstract

Purpose

The Aso area of Kumamoto Prefecture and the western part of Oita Prefecture in Japan experienced heavy rainfall from midnight until morning on 12 July 2012. Flooding and landslides caused by this torrential rain killed 31 people and injured 11. This paper aims to analyze a time series of flood risk perception and evacuation behavior, and to identify factors that promote effective autonomous evacuation.

Design/methodology/approach

A time series of flood risk perception and evacuation behavior following the 2012 flood was developed and systematically analyzed. Differences between the data sets (compiled from survey data) for the evacuated group and the non-evacuated group were statistically evaluated. Then, an evacuation behavior model was developed to simulate which households would be likely to evacuate in different scenarios. The relationship between disaster prevention and activities of a local community were also statistically assessed.

Findings

This study concludes that an assessment of river conditions and evacuation advice from fellow local community members are the factors that most strongly influence and promote autonomous evacuation. This study also revealed that the everyday activities of a local community have the potential to foster effective disaster prevention and emergency responses if they promote the building of relationships between community members.

Originality/value

The research focused on actual decision-making and autonomous evacuation behavior. Whereas previous studies were limited to the analysis of activities of disaster prevention on a normal day, this study proved that the usual activity level in local community activities and relationships significantly affected evacuation behavior.

Details

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, vol. 7 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-5908

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 September 2013

Hiroyuki Mitsuhara, Takahide Sumikawa, Jun Miyashita, Kazuhisa Iwaka and Yasunori Kozuki

Traditional evacuation drill is monotonous. Therefore, evacuation drill should be diversified to get more people interested in disaster prevention. Our idea is game-based…

Abstract

Purpose

Traditional evacuation drill is monotonous. Therefore, evacuation drill should be diversified to get more people interested in disaster prevention. Our idea is game-based evacuation drill using real world edutainment (RWE). This paper aims at clarifying how RWE-based evacuation drill is realized.

Design/methodology/approach

RWE provides experiential learning as the integration of edutainment and the real world. An RWE system works on a tablet PC and presents digital contents associated with learning scenes (e.g. real world locations) according to a branched storyline.

Findings

Story (branched storyline), indirect/direct competition, and augmented reality content provide multi-ending and flexible instructional support and are helpful for diversifying evacuation drill.

Research limitations/implications

RWE-based evacuation drill could be accepted by more people, but a branched storyline should be carefully refined to achieve maximum effect.

Social implications

RWE-based evacuation drill could open up diversification of disaster prevention education.

Originality/value

The originality of this study is to integrate edutainment, the real world, and evacuation drill. In the long run, this study could be helpful to save lives when a natural catastrophe (e.g. large earthquake) occurs.

Details

Interactive Technology and Smart Education, vol. 10 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-5659

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 October 2019

Abel Táiti Konno Pinheiro and Akihiko Hokugo

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of early warning and community cooperation for evacuation preparedness from mega-risk type coastal hazard in childcare centers…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of early warning and community cooperation for evacuation preparedness from mega-risk type coastal hazard in childcare centers, focusing in the evacuation of childcare centers from tsunami at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011.

Design/methodology/approach

As the research method, surveys were conducted in public childcare centers affected by tsunami in Kesennuma city in Miyagi Prefecture and Kamaishi city in Iwate Prefecture.

Findings

As the main findings, facilities, where teachers and children started evacuation immediately after the earthquake, could have more conditions to get cooperation from the local community to evacuate children in wide-scale urban environment. Children 3-5 years old tended to be instructed to walk two abreast under the lead of teachers, and children 0-2 years old tended to be carried by the piggyback ride and multi-passenger baby strollers. The destination of evacuation needed to be changed several times because of the risks for higher tsunami and fire outbreaks.

Research limitations/implications

As future issues, it is necessary to analyze the walking capability of children and the transportation capability of multi-passenger baby strollers by teachers, to address strategies to quantify the necessary community cooperation based on the severity of early warning.

Originality/value

Most of the past studies regarding disaster preparedness of nursery children are limited within the facility in case of fire. This work has importance as it focused on the emergency responses that require urban-scale evacuation in ascending route that differ from that which are required in the case of fire.

Details

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, vol. 10 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-5908

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 April 2024

Xiaobo Shi, Yaning Qiao, Xinyu Zhao, Yan Liu, Chenchen Liu, Ruopeng Huang and Yuanlong Cui

Modern subway transportation systems need to satisfy increasing safety demands to rapidly evacuate passengers under hazardous emergency circumstances, such as fires, accidents or…

Abstract

Purpose

Modern subway transportation systems need to satisfy increasing safety demands to rapidly evacuate passengers under hazardous emergency circumstances, such as fires, accidents or terrorist attacks, to reduce passenger injuries or life losses. The emergency evacuation capacity (EEC) of a subway station needs to be revised timely, in case passenger demand increases or the evacuation route changes in the future. However, traditional ways of estimating EEC, e.g. fire drills are time- and resource-consuming and are difficult to revise from time to time. The purpose of this study is to establish an intuitive modelling approach to increase the EEC of subway stations in a stepwised manner.

Design/methodology/approach

This study develops an approach to combine agent-based evacuation modelling and building information modelling (BIM) technology to estimate the total evacuation time of a subway station.

Findings

Evacuation time can be saved (33% in the studied case) from iterative improvements including stopping escalators running against the evacuation flow and modifying the geometry around escalator exits. Such iterative improvements rely on integrating agent-based modelling and BIM.

Originality/value

The agent-based model can provide a more realistic simulation of intelligent individual movements under emergency circumstances and provides precise feedback on locations of evacuation bottlenecks. This study also examined the effectiveness of two rounds of stepwise improvements in terms of operation or design to increase the EEC of the station.

Details

Construction Innovation , vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1471-4175

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2019

Bertha Maya Sopha, Risqika Edni Doni Achsan and Anna Maria Sri Asih

Uneven distribution and mistarget beneficiaries are among problems encountered during post-disaster relief operations in 2010 Mount Merapi eruption. The purpose of this paper is…

Abstract

Purpose

Uneven distribution and mistarget beneficiaries are among problems encountered during post-disaster relief operations in 2010 Mount Merapi eruption. The purpose of this paper is to develop an empirically founded agent-based simulation model addressing the evacuation dynamics and to explore coordination mechanism and other promising strategies during last-mile relief delivery.

Design/methodology/approach

An agent-based model which was specified and parameterized by empirical research (interviews and survey) was developed to understand the mechanism of individual decision making underlying the evacuation dynamics. A set of model testing was conducted to evaluate confidence level of the model in representing the evacuation dynamics during post-disaster of 2010 Mount Merapi eruption. Three scenarios of last-mile relief delivery at both strategic and operational levels were examined to evaluate quantitatively the effectiveness of the coordination mechanism and to explore other promising strategies.

Findings

Results indicate that the empirically founded agent-based modeling was able to reproduce the general pattern of observable Internal Displaced Persons based on government records, both at micro and macro levels, with a statistically non-significant difference. Low hazard perception and leader-following behavior which refuses to evacuate are the two factors responsible for late evacuation. Unsurprisingly, coordination through information sharing results in better performance than without coordination. To deal with both uneven distribution and long-term demand fulfillment, coordination among volunteers during aid distribution (at downstream operation) is not sufficient. The downstream coordination should also be accompanied with coordination between aid centers at the upstream operation. Furthermore, the coordination which is combined with other operational strategies, such as clustering strategy, using small-sized trucks and pre-positioning strategy, seems to be promising. It appears that the combined strategy of coordination and clustering strategy performs best among other combined strategies.

Practical implications

The significant role of early evacuation and self-evacuation behavior toward efficient evacuation indicates that human factor (i.e. hazard perception and cultural factor) should be considered in designing evacuation plan. Early warning system through both technology and community empowerment is necessary to support early evacuation. The early warning system should also be accompanied with at least 69 percent of the population performing self-evacuation behavior for the effective evacuation. As information sharing through coordination is necessary to avoid redundant efforts, uneven distribution and eventually to reduce unmet demand, the government can act as a coordinating actor to authorize the operation and mobilize the resources. The combination of coordination and another strategy reducing lead time such as clustering analysis, thus increasing responsiveness, is seemly strategy for efficient and effective last-mile relief distribution.

Originality/value

Literature on coordination is dominated by qualitative approach, which is difficult to evaluate its effectiveness quantitatively. Providing realistic setting of the evacuation dynamics in the course of the 2010 Mount Merapi eruption, the empirically founded agent-based model can be used to understand the factors influencing the evacuation dynamics and subsequently to quantitatively examine coordination mechanisms and other potential strategies toward efficient and effective last-mile relief distribution.

Details

Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-6747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 February 2018

Anass Rahouti, Sélim Datoussaïd and Thierry Descamps

This paper aims to focus on the combination of fire- and agent-based modelling approaches to assess the level of safety of a multi-storeyed building case study.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to focus on the combination of fire- and agent-based modelling approaches to assess the level of safety of a multi-storeyed building case study.

Design/methodology/approach

For an existing building to be occupied such as the engineering student dormitory of Mons (Belgium), engineers must establish, among the other things, that the building affords a sufficient level of safety during fire incident. This can be verified in accordance with prescriptive- and performance-based methodologies. The performance-based approach consists on using simulation tools such as fire dynamics simulator with evacuation to ensure/verify the level of safety required. In this paper, a model case study was built and then various scenarios have been implemented to answer some safety questions.

Findings

For this building layout, the results demonstrate that combining different egress components (i.e. stairs and outdoor ladders) has a negative impact on the evacuation process than using only the stairs to evacuate the building; phased evacuation strategy will not necessarily lead to faster evacuation; adding fire doors in the stairs and between the floors has a beneficial effect on the evacuation process.

Originality/value

This case study proposes some recommendations about adapted evacuation strategy and investments to improve the safety of high-rise student’s dormitory in case of fire.

Details

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-5908

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Pedestrian Behavior
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-848-55750-5

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 January 2020

Harkunti Pertiwi Rahayu, Louise K. Comfort, Richard Haigh, Dilanthi Amaratunga and Devina Khoirunnisa

This study aims to identify the gaps in current policy and propose a viable framework for policy improvement regarding people-centered tsunami early warning chain in Padang City…

3830

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to identify the gaps in current policy and propose a viable framework for policy improvement regarding people-centered tsunami early warning chain in Padang City. The objectives are: to describe the gaps and flaws in the current policy regarding local tsunami early warning chain, to identify potential actors to be involved in the tsunami early warning chain and to assess the roles and capacity of actors, and their potential for involvement in early warning.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is an exploratory study using social network analysis (SNA) on regulations and other legal documents, and primary data sources from a focus group discussion and semi-structured interviews.

Findings

The study found that the existed regulation lacks extension nodes to relay warnings to the populations at risk, often referred to as “the last mile.” Moreover, receiving warning information from both formal and informal sources is important to mobilize people evacuation more effectively during an emergency. The study found that mosque communities and disaster preparedness leaders are the potential actors who should be involved in the local early warning chain.

Practical implications

The research findings were presented as a recommendation to Padang City Government and have been legalized as the new tsunami early warning chain procedure in the Padang City Mayor Regulation 19/2018.

Originality/value

This research investigated local tsunami early warning dissemination in Padang City using SNA. The study demonstrates a close collaboration between researchers, practitioners and the community.

Details

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-5908

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 January 2018

Jun Sun, Xiande Wu, Shijie Zhang, Fengzhi Guo and Ting Song

The purpose of this paper is to propose an adaptive robust controller for coupled attitude and orbit control of rigid spacecraft based on dual quaternion in the presence of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose an adaptive robust controller for coupled attitude and orbit control of rigid spacecraft based on dual quaternion in the presence of external disturbances and model uncertainties.

Design/methodology/approach

First, based on dual quaternion, a theoretical model of the relative motion for rigid spacecraft is introduced. Then, an adaptive robust controller which can realize coordinated control of attitude and orbit is designed in the existence of external disturbances and model uncertainties.

Findings

This paper takes advantage of the Lyapunov function which can guarantee the asymptotic stabilization of the whole system in the existence of parameters uncertainties. Simulation results show that the proposed controller is feasible and effective.

Originality/value

This paper proposes a coupled attitude and orbit adaptive robust controller based on dual quaternion. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed controller can achieve higher control performance in the presence of parameters uncertainties.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 90 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

Keywords

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