A review of planning and operational models used for emergency evacuation situations in Australia

Thos paper focuses on planning and modelling bush fire-related evacuation, which is perhaps the most difficult disaster situation faced in Australia. It includes a discussion of the available data and the current Australian methods for analysis and planning. The paper concludes with a specification of the needs for models related to advance planning for potential emergencies (largely for bush fires) and for operational models for tactical application in dealing with emergencies, either in simulation exercises or in real circumstances. This includes the identification of critical locations in road networks. There has been some research on the development of a dynamic stated choice procedure for evacuation decision making under bush fire events, but much more research is required. The stated choice procedure could include visualisation to enhance the presentation of alternate scenarios.