Time-Dependent Optimal Routing in Micro-scale Emergency Situation

Geospatial research interests in emergency responses in micro-scale environments have been increased after 9/11. The application requires to define optimal paths in emergency situation, to support evacuees and rescuers. The optimal path defined in this study is used to guide rescuers. So, the path is from entrances to the disaster site (room), not from rooms to entrances in the building. In this study, we propose a time-dependent optimal routing algorithm to develop real-time evacuation systems. The network data that represents navigable spaces in building is used for routing the optimal path. Associated information about environments (for example, number of evacuees or rescuers, capacity of hallways and rooms, type of rooms and so on) is assigned to nodes and edges in the network. The time-dependent optimal path is defined after concerning temporally changed environmental information and the positions of evacuees and rescuer at each time slot for avoiding places jammed with evacuees. To detect the positions of human beings in a building per time period, we use the results of evacuation simulation system to identify the movement patterns of human beings in the emergency situation. We use the simulation data of five or ten seconds time interval, to determine the optimal route for rescuers.