An agent-based simulation system for concert venue crowd evacuation modeling in the presence of a fire disaster

A key activity in emergency management is planning and preparation for disaster. If the right safety measures are implemented beforehand, harmful effects can be significantly mitigated. However, evaluation and selection of effective measures is difficult due to the numerous scenarios that exist in most emergency environments coupled with the high associated cost of testing such scenarios. An agent-based system employs a computational model of autonomous interacting agents in an environment with the purpose of assessing the emergent behavior of the group. This paper presents a prototype of a computer simulation and decision support system that uses agent-based modeling to simulate crowd evacuation in the presence of a fire disaster and provides for testing of multiple disaster scenarios at virtually no cost. The prototype is unique in the current literature as it is specifically designed to simulate a concert venue setting such as a stadium or auditorium and is highly configurable allowing for user definition of concert venues with any arrangement of seats, pathways, stages, exits, and people as well as the definition of multiple fires with fire and smoke dynamics included. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.