Exploring pedestrian movement characteristics during urban flooding: A micro-simulation approach

Dongdong Shi, Jian Ma, Juan Chen, Qiao Wang and Jun Zhang
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Dongdong Shi: School of Transportation and Logistics, National Engineering Laboratory of Integrated, Transportation Big Data Application Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, P. R. China
Jian Ma: School of Transportation and Logistics, National Engineering Laboratory of Integrated, Transportation Big Data Application Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, P. R. China
Juan Chen: ��Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, P. R. China
Qiao Wang: School of Transportation and Logistics, National Engineering Laboratory of Integrated, Transportation Big Data Application Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, P. R. China
Jun Zhang: School of Transportation and Logistics, National Engineering Laboratory of Integrated, Transportation Big Data Application Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, P. R. China

International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), 2025, vol. 36, issue 05, 1-25

Abstract: Urban flooding events have emerged as increasingly prevalent and severe natural hazards, owing to the influence of climate change and human-induced activities. However, pedestrian locomotion in floodwater diverges significantly from level ambulation due to the complex interaction between pedestrians and water. To systematically investigate this mechanism of interaction, we propose the integration of a drag force into the social force model to simulate pedestrian movement behavior under floodwater conditions. The modified social force model was conducted for sensitivity parameters analysis and calibrated by three controllable experiments. Based on this calibrated model, an in-depth investigation has been conducted to analyze the influence of water depth and water flow velocity on pedestrians’ movement speed. Simulation results suggest that as water depth gradually incrementally rises, the drop rate of speed in running conditions is notably faster than that of walking conditions no matter what water flow speed and direction was. In addition, we propose a mathematical model capable of predicting pedestrians’ movement speed under floodwater conditions. These findings will offer valuable insights into the risk assessment of pedestrian evacuation in flooding scenarios.

Keywords: Social force model; flooding disaster; walking speed; running speed; pedestrian dynamic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1142/S0129183124502267

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