Methods for measuring collective behaviour in evacuees

Emergency evacuations often depend on social interactions among individuals. However, very little is still known about how and when they do so. This paper proposes quantitative methods for the analysis of collective behaviour in evacuees. The methods are applied to evacuation experiments in a multimodal transport station. In total 110 potential evacuation groups of 2-3 members and 30 potential evacuation groups of 6-9 members are analysed. Results show that the proposed methods provide (1) quantitative evidences of collective behaviour and (2) measurements of the behavioural cohesion in individuals during response and movement phases of evacuation.