| 1. |
- Baig, Khadija, et al.
(författare)
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Empirical evolution of an evacuation reporting template
- 2024
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Ingår i: Safety Science. - 0925-7535. ; 175
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Evacuation drills are frequently required components of health and safety processes, but they are often documented poorly (if at all), and thus might generate very little useful or actionable information. Given how much drills cost (in terms of potential risk to participants, financial overhead of downtime and restart time, etc.) it is perhaps surprising that even large organizations often lack a standardized form for recording important information about their conduct. The starting point for this paper was the development of such a template form for a large organization. After producing an initial design based on well-established principles, we obtained both quantitative and qualitative feedback from fire safety and evacuation experts. This then generated a final version of the form design, which was adopted and modified by end-users/emergency planners within the organization to document evacuations. Interviews with three end-users confirmed the usability and usefulness of the form, but they also highlighted second-order observations into emergency procedures (i.e., they generated new information about the organization's protocols that would not otherwise have been foregrounded or recorded). Our form offers a useful starting point for any organization that wishes to record the details of evacuation drills, but a perhaps more unexpected and abiding conclusion is that the process of generating such a form from first principles can – in itself – offer useful and previously inaccessible insights into how an organization conceptualizes and manages its evacuation drills.
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| 2. |
- Gwynne, Steve M.V., et al.
(författare)
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Roxborough Park Community Wildfire Evacuation Drill : Data Collection and Model Benchmarking
- 2023
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Ingår i: Fire Technology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0015-2684 .- 1572-8099. ; 59:2, s. 879-901
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wildfires are increasing in scale, frequency and longevity, and are affecting new locations as environmental conditions change. This paper presents a dataset collected during a community evacuation drill performed in Roxborough Park, Colorado (USA) in 2019. This is a wildland–urban interface community including approximately 900 homes. Data concerning several aspects of community response were collected through observations and surveys: initial population location, pre-evacuation times, route use, and arrival times at the evacuation assembly point. Data were used as inputs to benchmark two evacuation models that adopt different modelling approaches. The WUI-NITY platform and the Evacuation Management System model were applied across a range of scenarios where assumptions regarding pre-evacuation delays and the routes used were varied according to original data collection methods (and interpretation of the data generated). Results are mostly driven by the assumptions adopted for pre-evacuation time inputs. This is expected in communities with a low number of vehicles present on the road and relatively limited traffic congestion. The analysis enabled the sensitivity of the modelling approaches to different datasets to be explored, given the different modelling approaches adopted. The performance of the models were sensitive to the data employed (derived from either observations or self-reporting) and the evacuation phases addressed in them. This indicates the importance of monitoring the impact of including data in a model rather than simply on the data itself, as data affects models in different ways given the modelling methods employed. The dataset is released in open access and is deemed to be useful for future wildfire evacuation modelling calibration and validation efforts.
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| 3. |
- Gwynne, Steve, et al.
(författare)
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Modeling and mapping dynamic vulnerability to better assess WUI evacuation performance
- 2019
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Ingår i: Fire and Materials. - : Wiley. - 0308-0501 .- 1099-1018. ; 43:6, s. 644-660
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire incidents are likely to become more severe and will affect more and more people. Given their scale and complexity, WUI incidents require a multidomain approach to assess their impact and the effectiveness of any mitigation efforts. The authors recently produced a specification for a simulation framework that quantifies evacuation performance during WUI incidents including inputs from three core domains: fire development, pedestrian performance and vehicular traffic [26]. This framework could produce new insights by simulating evolving conditions of WUI incidents based on developments and interactions between the core components. Thus, it aims to overcome known limitations of previous approaches (eg, static assessment, single domain approaches, or lack of projection), as well as to provide explanatory insights into the outcomes produced by the simulation. The proposed framework would also advance geo-spatial mapping of WUI incidents. The concept of dynamic vulnerability, (Formula presented.), is at the core of the framework and is enabled by the integrated simulation framework and the emergent conditions predicted. This allows users to construct richer incident narratives from the perspective of specific locations or subpopulations, and also makes fewer simplifying assumptions regarding interactions between the three core domains.
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| 4. |
- Gwynne, Steve, et al.
(författare)
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The future of evacuation drills : Assessing and enhancing evacuee performance
- 2020
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Ingår i: Safety Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0925-7535. ; 129
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Evacuation drills are generally the main mechanism for improving or measuring occupant performance in emergency situations, but their effectiveness is often hard to measure, and there is limited evidence for sustained training benefits. However, innovations in technology (e.g., augmented/virtual reality, novel sensors and wearable tech) offer (when combined with new approaches to designing and delivering drills) significant opportunities for a “next generation” of evidence-based evacuation drills. In this paper, we present the findings of a recent trans-national research project; we establish the main limitations of existing drills, propose a framework for the assessment of both training and evaluation aspects of drills, make a number of recommendations, and suggest a programme of work for their implementation. The paper, therefore, provides a conceptual foundation for future work which will focus on (1) establishing an evidence-based methodology for assessing evacuation drills (and alternatives), (2) harnessing novel objective and automatable approaches to data capture/analytics in order to better characterize performance, (3), developing alternatives to the current drill model, based on emerging technologies, and (4) developing guidance for regulatory bodies on the costs and benefits of each approach for different scenarios.
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| 5. |
- Intini, Paolo, et al.
(författare)
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A review of design guidance on wildland urban interface fires
- 2017
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Fires in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) areas is a worldwide problem, which is gaining more importance over time due to climate change and constructions in the WUI areas. Standards and guidelines may greatly help the activities of planning, prevention and protection against wildfires. Some countries/States/local communities can already rely on existing standards and guidelines, while other areas, even if potentially subject to wildfires, not. This work presents a systematic review of standards and guidelines belonging to selected countries/States/local communities in the Western world, namely: North American countries (USA, Canada), European countries (France, Italy), Oceanic countries (Australia, New Zealand), and trans-national codes. The main information reviewed includes: hazard definition and severity classes, land factors (vegetation, defensible space and topographic factors), building materials and construction requirements, utilities (resources, firefighters, planning, outreach), fire protection measures, environmental factors (weather, fire history), and access requirements. A comparative analysis regarding the main similarities/differences between all the considered standards and guidelines was performed after the review process. This comparative analysis may be useful for the further development and/or revision of (novel) standards/guidelines for planning, preventing and protecting against fires in WUI areas.
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| 6. |
- Intini, Paolo, et al.
(författare)
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Guidance on Design and Construction of the Built Environment Against Wildland Urban Interface Fire Hazard : A Review
- 2020
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Ingår i: Fire Technology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0015-2684 .- 1572-8099. ; 56:5, s. 1853-1883
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fires, a worldwide problem, are gaining more importance over time due to climate change and increased urbanization in WUI areas. Some jurisdictions have provided standards, codes and guidelines, which may greatly help planning, prevention and protection against wildfires. This work presents a wide systematic review of standards, codes and guidelines for the design and construction of the built environment against WUI fire hazard from North American, European, Oceanic countries, alongside with trans-national codes. The main information reviewed includes: the definition of WUI hazards, risk areas and related severity classes, the influence of land and environmental factors, the requirements for building materials, constructions, utilities, fire protection measures and road access. Some common threads among the documents reviewed have been highlighted. They include similar attempts at: (a) defining WUI risk areas and severity classes, (b) considering land factors including the defensible space (also known as ignition zones), (c) prescribing requirements for buildings and access. The main gaps highlighted in the existing standards/guidelines include lacks of detailed and widespread requirements for resources, fire protection measures, and lacks of taking into account environmental factors in detail. The main design and construction principles contained in the reviewed documents are largely based on previous research and/or good practices. Hence, the main contributions of this paper consist in: (a) systematically disseminate these guidance concepts, (b) setting a potential basis for the development of standards/guidelines in other jurisdictions lacking dedicated WUI fire design guidance, (c) highlighting gaps in existing standards/guidelines to be addressed by current and future research.
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| 7. |
- Rohaert, Arthur, et al.
(författare)
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Traffic dynamics during the 2019 Kincade wildfire evacuation
- 2023
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Ingår i: Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 1361-9209. ; 116
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Traffic models are a useful tool for evacuation planning and management in case of wildfires. Despite the availability of several evacuation models, the number of datasets that can be used for their calibration and validation is limited. This paper presents key traffic flow data collected during the 2019 Kincade Fire. The data (69 116 data points from 24 locations) have been sourced from the Performance Measurement System of the California Department of Transportation. A set of commonly used models that describe the relationships between speed, flow and density has been fit to the data and compared to the model from the Highway Capacity Manual. In evacuation scenarios, the vehicle speed is about 3.5 km/h lower in comparison with the speed in routine scenarios, both for low and high traffic density. This demonstrates that dedicated models are needed for an accurate estimation of traffic evacuation times.
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| 8. |
- Wahlqvist, Jonathan, et al.
(författare)
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The simulation of wildland-urban interface fire evacuation : The WUI-NITY platform
- 2021
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Ingår i: Safety Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0925-7535. ; 136
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wildfires are a significant safety risk to populations adjacent to wildland areas, known as the wildland-urban interface (WUI). This paper introduces a modelling platform called WUI-NITY. The platform is built on the Unity3D game engine and simulates and visualises human behaviour and wildfire spread during an evacuation of WUI communities. The purpose of this platform is to enhance the situational awareness of responders and residents during evacuation scenarios by providing information on the dynamic evolution of the emergency. WUI-NITY represents current and predicted conditions by coupling the three key modelling layers of wildfire evacuation, namely the fire, pedestrian, and traffic movement. This allows predictions of evacuation behaviour over time. The current version of WUI-NITY demonstrates the feasibility and advantages of coupling the modelling layers. Its wildfire modelling layer is based on FARSITE, the pedestrian layer implements a dedicated pedestrian response and movement model, and the traffic layer includes a traffic evacuation model based on the Lighthill-Whitham-Richards model. The platform also includes a sub-model called PERIL that designs the spatial location of trigger buffers. The main contribution of this work is in the development of a modular and model-agnostic (i.e., not linked to a specific model) platform with consistent levels of granularity (allowing a comparable modelling resolution in the representation of each layer) in all three modelling layers. WUI-NITY is a powerful tool to protect against wildfires; it can enable education and training of communities, forensic studies of past evacuations and dynamic vulnerability assessment of ongoing emergencies.
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