A methodology for evacuation route planning inside buildings using geospatial technology
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http://hdl.handle.net/10045/41464
Title: | A methodology for evacuation route planning inside buildings using geospatial technology |
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Authors: | Ramon-Morte, Alfredo | Rodríguez Hidalgo, A.B. | Navarro Carrión, José Tomás | Zaragozí Zaragozí, Benito Manuel |
Research Group/s: | Medio, Sociedad y Paisaje (MedSPai) | Planificación y Gestión Sostenible del Turismo |
Center, Department or Service: | Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Análisis Geográfico Regional y Geografía Física | Universidad de Alicante. Instituto Interuniversitario de Geografía |
Keywords: | Emergency evacuation | Route planning | Building engineering | Geospatial technology |
Knowledge Area: | Análisis Geográfico Regional |
Issue Date: | 2013 |
Publisher: | WIT Press |
Citation: | WIT Transactions on Information and Communication Technologies. 2013, 45: 155-166. doi:10.2495/DATA130141 |
Abstract: | Evacuation route planning is a fundamental task for building engineering projects. Safety regulations are established so that all occupants are driven on time out of a building to a secure place when faced with an emergency situation. As an example, Spanish building code requires the planning of evacuation routes on large and, usually, public buildings. Engineers often plan these routes on single building projects, repeatedly assigning clusters of rooms to each emergency exit in a trial-and-error process. But problems may arise for a building complex where distribution and use changes make visual analysis cumbersome and sometimes unfeasible. This problem could be solved by using well-known spatial analysis techniques, implemented as a specialized software able to partially emulate engineer reasoning. In this paper we propose and test an easily reproducible methodology that makes use of free and open source software components for solving a case study. We ran a complete test on a building floor at the University of Alicante (Spain). This institution offers a web service (WFS) that allows retrieval of 2D geometries from any building within its campus. We demonstrate how geospatial technologies and computational geometry algorithms can be used for automating the creation and optimization of evacuation routes. In our case study, the engineers’ task is to verify that the load capacity of each emergency exit does not exceed the standards specified by Spain’s current regulations. Using Dijkstra’s algorithm, we obtain the shortest paths from every room to the most appropriate emergency exit. Once these paths are calculated, engineers can run simulations and validate, based on path statistics, different cluster configurations. Techniques and tools applied in this research would be helpful in the design and risk management phases of any complex building project. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10045/41464 |
ISSN: | 1746-4463 (Print) | 1743-3517 (Online) |
DOI: | 10.2495/DATA130141 |
Language: | eng |
Type: | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
Rights: | © 2013 WIT Press |
Peer Review: | si |
Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.2495/DATA130141 |
Appears in Collections: | INV - MedSPai - Artículos de Revistas INV - PGST - Artículos de Revistas |
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File | Description | Size | Format | |
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2013_Ramon_etal_WIT-TICT.pdf | Versión final (acceso restringido) | 434,09 kB | Adobe PDF | Open Request a copy |
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