Date of Award
4-2009
Degree Name
Master of Science in Engineering
Department
Civil and Construction Engineering
First Advisor
Dr. Hubo Cai
Second Advisor
Dr. Jun-Seok Oh
Third Advisor
Dr. Osama Abudayyey
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Campus Only
Abstract
Disasters such as floods and wildfires are unexpected, sudden events occurring all over the world. When such an event occurs, residents in the affected areas have to be evacuated in a timely manner to save lives and reduce losses. Emergency evacuation must be planned by incorporating the characteristics of the target population and the context. Based on various characteristics, communities are different. Campus community is different than other communities in the aspects of the number of population, roadway network, working time, and parking facilities. And emergency evacuation for campus communities has not been specifically addressed yet to our knowledge.
Many evacuation strategies have emerged, like the counter-flow, setting barriers to control traffic flow and minimize conflicts, and timed modification. This research work developed strategies for setting up barriers to facilitate evacuation for vehicles. Evaluation of these strategies has been done by comparing their performance to "No barrier" case. TRANSIMS was used to find out problematic nodes and links, and to validate the model. Five scenarios have been considered in this research. In this research, I have found that the evacuation time for barrier-used scenario is at least seven percent less than no-barrier scenario. Future work can be done for both pedestrians and vehicles.
Recommended Citation
Rahman, Asadur, "Barrier-Based Evacuation Plan for University Campuses" (2009). Masters Theses. 224.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/224