Developing mass emergency evacuation procedure with risk management and evacuation routing aid

Evacuation is needed when natural or man-made disasters, such as, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, wildfires, gas leaks etc. threaten a populated area and thus expose it to life threatening situations. The process of evacuation has a major impact on the transportation network because of the traffic problems as people are trying to get away from the danger zones to the shelters. Hence, a well-organized evacuation process is needed in order to save lives and minimize losses. To make this evacuation process efficient yet effective, an emergency evacuation aid is developed. This research would have three tasks: identifying the danger zones; providing evacuation routes by considering the potential danger zones; allowing the users or evacuees to communicate for avoiding any possible additional problems in the evacuation path. The system would be designed using the concepts of risk management by creating a risk matrix and identifying the risks involved along with the contingency plan for each of the risks mentioned. This study would also provide an emergency evacuation plan to follow during the evacuation process which is better visualized with the help of an evacuation process. A test scenario is developed for better understanding of the system.