Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Lessons from the evacuation of the world trade centre, 9/11 2001 for the development of computer-based simulations

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Cognition, Technology & Work Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in evacuation simulations. These interactive computer based tools have been developed to help the owners and designers of large public buildings to assess the risks that occupants might face during emergency egress. The development of the Glasgow Evacuation Simulator is used to illustrate the existing generation of tools. This system uses Monte Carlo techniques to control individual and group movements during an evacuation. The end-user can interactively open and block emergency exits at any point. It is also possible to alter the priorities that individuals associate with particular exit routes. A final benefit is that the tool can derive evacuation simulations directly from existing architects, models; this reduces the cost of simulations and creates a more prominent role for these tools in the iterative development of large-scale public buildings. Empirical studies have been used to validate the GES system as a tool to support evacuation training. The development of these tools has been informed by numerous human factors studies and by recent accident investigations. For example the 2003 fire in the Station nightclub in Rhode Island illustrated the way in which most building occupants retrace their steps to an entrance even when there are alternate fire exits. The second half of the paper uses this introduction to criticise the existing state-of-the-art in evacuation simulations. These criticisms are based on a detailed study of the recent findings from the 9/11 Commission (2004). Ten different lessons are identified. Some relate to the need to better understand the role of building management and security systems in controlling egress from public buildings. Others relate to the human factors involved in coordinating distributed groups of emergency personnel who may be physically exhausted by the demands of an evacuation. Arguably, the most important findings centre on the need to model the ingress and egress of emergency personnel from these structures. The previous focus of nearly all-existing simulation tools has been on the evacuation of building occupants rather than on the safety of first responders.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

AMCBOUS:

Association of Major City/County Building Officials

EC:

European Commission

ESU:

NYPD Emergency Service Unit

FAA:

US Federal Aviation Administration

FDNY:

Fire Department of New York

FRS:

UK Fire Research Service

GES:

Glasgow Evacuation Simulator

IBC:

International Building Code

NCSBCS:

US National Conference on Building Codes and Standards

NFPA:

US National Fire Protection Association

NIST:

US National Institute of Standards and Technology

NYPD:

New York Police Department

OSHA:

US Occupational Safety and Health Administration

PAPD:

New York Port Authority Police Department

PATH:

New York Port Authority Trans-Hudson (metro link)

TCPP:

Transport Canada Personality Profile

WTC:

World Trade Centre

References

  • UK Atomic Energy Authority (2002) A technical summary of the AEA Egress Code, technical report AET/NOIL/27812001/002(2), Issue 1, Warrington UK

  • Baker W, Barnett J, Marrion C, Milke J, Nelson H (2002) Chapter 2: WTC1 and WTC2. In: Federal Emergency Management Agency, World Trade Center building performance study: data collection, preliminary observations, and recommendations. Washington DC

  • Batty M, Desyllas J, Duxbury E (2003) Safety in numbers? Modelling crowds and designing control for the Notting Hill Carnival. Urban Studies 40(8):1573–1590

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UK Building Research Establishment Evacuation (2004) Modeling: GridFlow and CRISP, Watford, UK. Available on: http://www.bre.co.uk/frs/

  • Bukowski RW, Peacock RD, Jones WW (1998) Sensitivity examination of the airEXODUS aircraft evacuation simulation model. In: Proceedings of the international aircraft fire and cabin safety research conference. November 16–20, Atlantic City, NJ, pp 1–14

  • Cornwell B (2003) Bonded fatalities: relational and ecological dimensions of a fire evacuation. Sociol Q 44(4):617–638

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fahy RF, Proulx G (1997) Human behaviour in the World Trade Center evacuation. In: Hasemi Y (ed) Proceedings of the fifth (5th) international symposium international association for fire safety science. Fire safety science. 3–7, March, 1997, Melbourne, Australia, 713–724 pp

  • Geyer T, Bellamy L, Max-Lino R, Harrison P, Bahrami Z, Modha B (1988) An evaluation of the effectiveness of the components of informative fire warning systems. In: Sime J (ed) Safety in the built environment. E. & F. N. Spon, London, pp 36–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldenstein S, Karavelas M, Metaxas D, Guibas L, Aaron E, Goswami (2001) A scalable nonlinear dynamical systems for agent steering and crowd simulation. Comput Graph 25(6): 983–998

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson CW (2003) A handbook of accident and incident reporting, Glasgow University Press, Glasgow. Available on-line at: http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~johnson/book

  • Johnson CW (2004) The Role Of Nght Vision Equipment In Military Incidents And Accidents. In: Johnson CW, Palanque P (eds) Human error, safety and systems development. Kluwer Academic Press, Boston, USA, pp 1–16

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson NR, Feinberg WE (1997) The impact of exit instructions and number of exits in fire emergencies: a computer simulation investigation. Department of Sociology, University of Cincinnati, USA

  • Kurkjian S, Ebbert S, Farragher T (2003) Behind the rhode island nightclub fire: series of errors sealed crowd’s fate, The Boston Globe, 6 September 2003

  • Latman N (2004) TCPP Personality Profile. In: The fourth triennial international fire and cabin safety research conference, 15–18 November 2004, Parque das Naçoes Conference Centre, Lisbon, Portugal

  • Mourareau R, Thomas M eds (1985) Fire in buildings. Elsevier Applied Science Publishers Ltd

  • Muir H (1996) Research into the factors influencing survival in aircraft accidents. The aeronautical journal, May 1996, 177–181

  • New York City Government (2002) Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announces commission to study international building code, Press release PR-284-02, November 2002, Available on www.nyc.gov

  • US National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (2004) The 9/11 Commission Report, Washington DC. Available from: http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/index.htm

  • US National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards (2002) News release: at NCSBCS annual conference, construction industry, building regulators discuss coordinated actions critical to economic competitiveness, public safety and homeland security. Available on: http://www.ncsbcs.com/

  • US National Fire Protection Association (2004) High-rise building fires: frequently asked questions. Available on http://www.nfpa.org/

  • US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (2003) OSHA Factsheet: evacuating high-rise buildings, US Department of Labor, Washington DC. Available on http://www.osha.gov

  • UK Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2004) The regulatory reform (fire safety) order stateent by the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, UK Government. Available on: http://www.odpm.gov.uk/

  • Owen M, Galea E, Lawrence P (1996) The EXODUS evacuation model applied to building evacuation scenarios. J Fire Prot Eng 8(2):65–86

    Google Scholar 

  • Predtechenskii VM, Milinskii (1969) AI planning for foot traffic flow in buildings. Stroiizdat, Moscow

    Google Scholar 

  • Proulx G, Sime J (1991) To prevent panic in an underground emergency: why not tell people the truth. In: Cox G, Langsford B (eds) Fire safety science, Proceedings of the third international symposium. Elsevier, London, pp 843–852

  • Proulx G (2001) Occupant behaviour and evacuation. In: Proceedings of the nineth international fire protection symposium, Munich, 25––26, pp 219–232

  • Sime J (1983) Affiliative behaviour during escape to building exits. J Environ Psychol 3:21–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sime J (1985) Movement toward the familiar: person and place affiliation in a fire entrapment setting. Environment and behaviour 17:697–724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sime J (1987) Research on escape behaviour in fires: new directions. Fire Research News 9:3–5

    Google Scholar 

  • Tong D, Canter D (1985) The decision to evacuate: a study of motivations which contribute to evacuation in the event of fire. Fire Saf J 9:257–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Older SJ (1965) Pedestrians. Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Laboratory, LN 275/SJO. Crowthorne, England

  • Thompson PA, Marchant EW (1995) Computer and fluid modelling of evacuation. Saf Sci 18: 277–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the other members of the Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow for their support. Thanks are due to Dr James Hill, Building and Fire Research Laboratory, US National Institute of Standards and Technology for providing valuable encouragement during the initial stages of this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Glasgow Accident Analysis Group, Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ, Glasgow, UK

    C.W. Johnson

Authors
  1. C.W. Johnson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C.W. Johnson.

Additional information

Thanks are due to J. Appleby, P. Cooper, A. Foss, S. Hailey and B. Jenks who were responsible for the design and implementation of the GES application. They also drove the development of the Boyd Orr evacuation scenarios that are used to illustrate the opening sections of this paper.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Johnson, C. Lessons from the evacuation of the world trade centre, 9/11 2001 for the development of computer-based simulations. Cogn Tech Work 7, 214–240 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-005-0009-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-005-0009-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation