LAUSR

Timely and secure evacuation of residents in communities is of great importance during unexpected disasters or emergency events. This study proposes a framework of evacuation simulation for optimizing emergency management in urban residential communities. Compared to traditional methods, the advantage of our framework lies in three aspects: (1) The method highlights easy-crowded areas in both indoor and outdoor evacuations. (2) Family behaviors are considered and implemented in evacuations. (3) Detailed measures on management optimization are spatially mapped based on a multi-level analysis and the comparison of evacuation simulation results in different scenarios. A case study in Changhongfang residential community, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China, was conducted to demonstrate the method feasibility. Simulation results have exposed potential evacuation problems in the community. A series of detailed recommended measures have been generated. These measures can help to create better emergency management for the community.