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Simulating Crowd Evacuation with Socio-Cultural, Cognitive, and Emotional Elements

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Transactions on Computational Collective Intelligence XXVII

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((TCCI,volume 10480))

Abstract

In this research, the effects of culture, cognitions, and emotions on crisis management and prevention are analysed. An agent-based crowd evacuation simulation model was created, named IMPACT, to study the evacuation process from a transport hub. To extend previous research, various socio-cultural, cognitive, and emotional factors were modelled, including: language, gender, familiarity with the environment, emotional contagion, prosocial behaviour, falls, group decision making, and compliance. The IMPACT model was validated against data from an evacuation drill using the existing EXODUS evacuation model. Results show that on all measures, the IMPACT model is within or close to the prescribed boundaries, thereby establishing its validity. Structured simulations with the validated model revealed important findings, including: the effect of doors as bottlenecks, social contagion speeding up evacuation time, falling behaviour not affecting evacuation time significantly, and travelling in groups being more beneficial for evacuation time than travelling alone. This research has important practical applications for crowd management professionals, including transport hub operators, first responders, and risk assessors.

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Acknowledgments

This research was undertaken as part of the EU HORIZON 2020 Project IMPACT (GA 653383) and Science without Borders – CNPq (scholarship reference: 233883/2014-2). We would like to thank our Consortium Partners and stakeholders for their input and the Brazilian Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    C. Natalie van der Wal, Daniel Formolo & Tibor Bosse

  2. Socio-Technical Centre, Leeds University Business School, Leeds, UK

    Mark A. Robinson

  3. Varna University of Management, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Michael Minkov

Authors
  1. C. Natalie van der Wal
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  2. Daniel Formolo
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  3. Mark A. Robinson
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  4. Michael Minkov
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  5. Tibor Bosse
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Natalie van der Wal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Finance and Management, The WSB University, Wroclaw, Poland

    Jacek Mercik

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van der Wal, C.N., Formolo, D., Robinson, M.A., Minkov, M., Bosse, T. (2017). Simulating Crowd Evacuation with Socio-Cultural, Cognitive, and Emotional Elements. In: Mercik, J. (eds) Transactions on Computational Collective Intelligence XXVII. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10480. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70647-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70647-4_11

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