Dynamic guidance tool for a safer earthquake pedestrian evacuation in urban systems

This paper concerns a non-invasive solution for guiding people along probable safe evacuation routes in earthquake emergency. The proposed Seismic Pedestrians' Evacuation Dynamic Guidance Expert System (SpeedGuides) considers the influence of the main environmental and behavioural safety factors for evacuees (i.e. street vulnerability, street blockages probability, crowding conditions along paths, presence of mortal dangers, visibility conditions) and combines them in a safety index through the Multi-criteria techniques application. SpeedGuides dynamically collects safety factor data during the time and suggests the possible safest path to the nearest secure zone according to the Dijkstra's algorithm approach. SpeedGuides is an easy-to-use model proposed for application on personal devices (e.g. smartphone) that, taking advantage of different expert methods, allows evacuees to simple enhance their safety. A first effectiveness evaluation of SpeedGuides is provided through an earthquake pedestrians' evacuation simulator in a significant case study. The evacuee performances (with and without the proposed guidance tool) are compared and discussed. Results demonstrate how individuals' safety levels are increased when evacuees use SpeedGuides.