Three-Dimensional Modeling for Buildings Evacuation Management

Abstract: The terrorist attacks on New York City on September 11, 2001 heightened awareness about the need to plan for emergency evacuation measures. As a result, three-Dimensional (3D) city and building models have become an important part of GIS analysis. The technology can be used to plan evacuations in complex indoor environments. This thesis had two main objectives. The first goal was to conduct a 3D network analysis of a building for emergency management, which was based on a 3D model of a building in the city of Gävle, Sweden. This 3D model identifies the shortest path from any room to the defined exit. The second objective was to test the predicted evacuation times with a simulation experiment. The 3D model was built by Google Sketch Pro 8 and the 3D network analysis was mainly conducted in the ESRI’s ArcGIS software. The simulation experiment involved 18 volunteers at the organization Future Position X. The 3D network analysis was based on distance measurements instead of GNSS coordinates. The simulation experiment was conducted in four different situations. Crowding was found to be a critical problem during evacuation. Evacuation speeds varied from normal walking to running. However, crowding always increased the evacuation time and thus would affect the survival rate. Evacuation routes should be distributed differently to reduce this problem. The thesis also identifies other factors to be considered when planning emergency routes and challenges posed by the software at this time.