Isovists compactness and stairs as predictors of evacuation route choice

Abstract

The building design is a crucial factor that can be actively adjusted and optimized to prevent human and property threats in emergency scenarios. Previous research suggests that specific building layouts may significantly influence human behaviour during evacuation. However, detailed empirical data about human behaviour in various types of buildings with different layouts are still missing and only marginal recommendations from this field are reflected in actual construction practice. In this study, desktop VR technologies were employed to study human decision-making in problematic T-intersections in the context of an emergency evacuation. More specifically, we studied fundamental attributes of buildings such as the width and length of the corridors and the presence of stairs to explore how they influence the choice of the evacuation route. The space-syntax isovist method was used to describe spatial parameters of corridors, which makes the results applicable to all buildings. Behavioural data from 208 respondents were analysed using multilevel regression models. Our results support previous claims concerning the importance of specific spatial layouts of evacuation corridors because respondents systematically chose wider and shorter corridors with visible staircases as the preferred evacuation route. The present findings further promote the ongoing discussion on the design of marked evacuation routes and building design that takes human factors into consideration.

Fire Egress System Optimization of High-Rise Teaching Building Based on Simulation and Machine Learning

“…Since experimenting with fire in the real world would result in accidents or severe injuries, the simulation method marked an important turning point for the research of fire evacuation [11]. Recent years have witnessed a growing academic interest in the areas of fire lighting simulation [16], fire smoke flow simulation [17], fire safety assessment [18,19], fire evacuation simulation [20][21][22][23], etc.…”

Integrasi Jalur Evakuasi pada Bangunan Publik Bertingkat Menggunakan Pendekatan Space Syntax

“…Desain bangunan merupakan faktor penting yang dapat disesuaikan dan dioptimalkan secara aktif untuk mencegah ancaman manusia dan harta benda dalam skenario darurat. Tata letak bangunan tertentu secara signifikan dapat mempengaruhi perilaku manusia selama evakuasi (Snopková, et al, 2023). Hal ini kemudian menuntut adanya desain pendukung evakuasi pada bangunan gedung yang memadai dan sesuai dengan standar yang berlaku.…”