Multi-Objective Path Selection Model and Algorithm for Emergency Evacuation

Evacuation planning is one of the most important aspects of emergency management. Path selection is one of the fundamental problems in evacuation planning. A multi-objective mathematical model is presented for path selection in emergency evacuation. The two objectives of the model are to minimize the total travel time along a path and to minimize the path complexity respectively. Taking into account the real-time effect of disaster extension, the travel speed on each arc is modeled as a continuous decrease function with respect to time. The complexity of the path is modeled as the total number of arcs included in the path. An ant colony optimization algorithm is proposed to solve the model. Simulation results show the effectiveness and feasibility of the model and algorithm.