LAUSR

Abstract Many people die every year in emergency situations due to the absence of efficient evacuation plans. Not having an adequate action plan implies high evacuation times that can put lives at risk. Usually, people do not follow the safety signs during unsafe conditions; they react unexpectedly due to the panic and the anxiety to quickly evacuate the place. The evacuation plans commonly indicate a specific exit route and do not consider the possibility of proposing alternative routes in case of blockages or high congestion. This research aims to design an evacuation plan considering aspects of pedestrian behaviour and multiple routing strategies. A combined agent-based discrete choice modelling approach was chosen to represent the heterogeneity in people’s behaviour and the interaction between them and the environment. The proposed evacuation plan incorporates specific signalling to encourage people taking alternatives routes when given paths are congested. The new plan also highlights the necessity to create new emergency exits and to modify the current structure of the building.