A method to optimize evacuation instructions

Authors: Olga L Huibregtse Serge P Hoogendoorn Andreas Hegyi Michiel C J Bliemer

Publish Date: 2011/03/30

Volume: 33, Issue: 3, Pages: 595-627

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Abstract

In this paper an optimization method is presented for instructions to evacuate by car the population of a region threatened by a hazard By giving the optimized instructions to the evacuees traffic conditions and therefore the evacuation efficiency are optimized The instructions containing a departure time a safe destination and a route are created using an optimization method consisting of two phases the generation of the search space and the algorithm AES+ evacuation a version of ant colony optimization The main contributions of the proposed optimization method are the unique approach to generate the search space in which network degeneration is taken into consideration the possibility to optimize instructions under the assumption of both full and partial compliance of the evacuees with the instructions and the flexibility in the sense that the user of the method can define his or her own objective function and choose a suitable traffic simulation model The paper contains a comprehensive case study The case study shows that the effectiveness of the optimized instructions is more than doubled when compared with the effectiveness of instructions set up by straightforward rules like evacuating to the nearest destination using the shortest route Further the case study shows that the number of arrivals under optimized but possibly suboptimal instructions is equal to at least 90 of the theoretical upper bound on this number of arrivalsThis article is published under an open access license Please check the Copyright Information section for details of this license and what reuse is permitted If your intended use exceeds what is permitted by the license or if you are unable to locate the licence and reuse information please contact the Rights and Permissions team

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