Title: An integrated methodology for dynamic routing in evacuation planning

Authors: Arab Naser; Ali K. Kamrani

Addresses: Design and Free Form Fabrication Laboratory, Industrial Engineering Department, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-4008, USA ' Design and Free Form Fabrication Laboratory, Industrial Engineering Department, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-4008, USA

Abstract: Evacuation planning involves an iterative process to identify the best routes and to estimate the time required to evacuate the areas at risk. The ultimate goal of any evacuation planning effort is to minimise the number of casualties against possible threats and risks. One important factor leading to minimising the number of causalities is total evacuation time, i.e., the time from the start of evacuation until the time the last evacuee reaches safety. The scope of this paper is on the development of a unified and integrated model as a decision support tool to plan for alternative evacuation routes and schedules for evacuees in order to minimise total evacuation time. The potential contribution of this model is in overcoming previous research shortcomings that assume constant travel parameters. An assumption that is shown in this paper to produce impractical results and in case of actual evacuation can generate life threatening recommendations.

Keywords: network optimisation; simulation; time expanded networks; traffic density; quickest transhipment problem; load dependent travel times; dynamic routing; evacuation planning; decision support; alternative routes; evacuation routes; evacuation schedules; alternative schedules; total evacuation time; emergency management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCENT.2013.058638

International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise, 2013 Vol.3 No.4, pp.314 - 345

Published online: 12 Jan 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article