Understanding Tsunami Evacuation via a Social Force Model While Considering Stress Levels Using Agent-Based Modelling

Constanza Flores (), Han Soo Lee and Erick Mas
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Constanza Flores: Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering Program, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University, 1-5-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8529, Japan
Han Soo Lee: Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering Program, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University, 1-5-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8529, Japan
Erick Mas: International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8572, Japan

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: Given massive events, such as demonstrations in coastal cities exposed to tsunamigenic earthquakes, it is essential to explore pedestrian motion methods to help at-risk coastal communities and stakeholders understand the current issues they face to enhance disaster preparedness. This research targets SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities. It strengthens resilience in coastal areas by implementing a social force model using a microscopic agent-based model to assess the impact of human behaviour on evacuation performance by introducing evacuation stress levels due to a tsunami triggered in central Chile. Two scenarios with two environments and three crowd sizes are implemented in NetLogo. In Scenario 1, pedestrians walk at a relaxed velocity. In Scenario 2, tsunami evacuation stress is incorporated, resulting in pedestrians walking at a running velocity, taking, on average, four times less time to evacuate. We explored more realistic settings by considering the internal susceptibility of each agent to spread tsunami evacuation stress among other evacuees. Results from Scenario 2 show that internal susceptibility effects almost double the mean evacuation time for 200 agents. Findings suggest a trade-off between realism and the minimization of evacuation time. This research is considered a first step toward including stress in tsunami evacuations for sustainable evacuation planning.

Keywords: sustainable evacuation planning; disaster preparedness; tsunami evacuation; coastal resilience; evacuation stress; agent-based modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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