Emergency Preparedness in the Case of a Tsunami—Evacuation Analysis and Traffic Optimization for the Indonesian City of Padang

Abstract

The "Last-Mile Evacuation" research project develops a numerical last mile tsunami early warning and evacuation information system on the basis of detailed earth observation data and techniques as well as unsteady, hydraulic numerical modeling of small-scale flooding and inundation dynamics of the tsunami including evacuation simulations in the urban coastal hinterland for the city of Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia. It is well documented that Sumatra's third largest city with almost one million inhabitants is located directly on the coast and partially sited beneath the sea level, and thus, is located in a zone of extreme risk due to severe earthquakes and potential triggered tsunamis. "Last-Mile" takes the inundation dynamics into account and additionally assesses the physical-technical susceptibility and the socioeconomic vulnerability of the population with the objective to mitigate human and material losses due to possible tsunamis. By means of discrete multi-agent techniques risk-based, time-and site-dependent forecasts of the evacuation behavior of the population and the flow of traffic in large parts of the road system in the urban coastal strip are simulated and concurrently linked with the other components.

Advantages of Cooperative Behavior During Tsunami Evacuation

“…On the emergency management side, Lammel et al [7] proposed traffic optimization for tsunami evacuation in the Indonesian city of Padang. Authors used agent based simulation to estimate the evacuation process, detect potential hindrances and locations where tsunami proof shelters would be absolutely necessary to allow a successful evacuation of citizens living in its area.…”

Large Scale Pedestrian Evacuation Modeling Framework Using Volunteered Geographical Information

“…However, more recently, studies like 'Last-Mile Evacuation' project by Lämmel et al (2010c) use modified queuing model to simulate pedestrian dynamics using MATSim developed by MATSim Development Team (2008). This study aims to train the inhabitants of the Indonesian city of Padang, a region highly susceptible to tsunamis, after numerically computing the best pedestrian evacuation strategy.…”

Measuring Disaster Preparedness of UK Cities from Open Spatial Databases

“…Lämmel et al, [2] carried out evacuation simulation in the Indonesian city of Padang for Last Mile Evacuation Project. However, such planning tools rely on a large amount of information gathering which requires an equally large amount of time.…”