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Human Response to Emergency Communication: A Review of Guidance on Alerts and Warning Messages for Emergencies in Buildings

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Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide guidance on enhancing human response to emergency communication. This guidance can, in turn, help engineers improve the design of emergency notification and messaging systems, which, as a result, can help inform occupant response, reduce occupant evacuation time, and increase occupant safety. The article begins with a literature review on how people respond to emergencies. The Protective Action Decision Model, which describes the decision-making process that precedes human response in disaster events, is used as a framework for the literature collected as part of this review. This model is divided into three pre-decisional and five decisional processes. The method used to create the guidance document is then explained, including the six steps taken to review the literature collected (from 162 engineering and social science sources), generate findings from this literature, and compile the key statements found in the guidance document. Guidance on alerts, visual/audible warnings and dissemination of warning messages are provided. These are organized according to alert/warning type and dissemination method. The findings of the literature review include five guidance statements on alerts, 16 guidance statements on visual warnings, seven guidance statements on audible warnings and eight guidance statements on the dissemination of warning messages. Finally, guidance on emergency message testing, including language, readability and fire drills as a means of response testing, is provided. It is envisioned that this guidance will inform practitioners on the design of future emergency communications and subsequently enhances evacuee performance through a better understanding of the manner in which emergency information is processed and the tools available to provide such information.

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Notes

  1. Note that this discussion is focused on technology-based systems. Staff intervention, for example, is not included as a form of an emergency notification system in this section.

  2. Albeit imperfect, variable, often truncated and bounded. Human response, as described by the PADM, is not necessarily a long, conscious, solely cognitive process but can be considered an automatic process and could involve the influence of emotions.

  3. No guidance is provided in this article on the sound levels for audible alert. NFPA 72 [19] provides requirements on the sound levels for audible alerts, including the sound levels for waking people up and the appropriate location of these audible alerts systems within the building to achieve an appropriate sound level result.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. JENSEN HUGHES, Inc., 4601 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 1200, Arlington, VA, 22203, USA

    Hidemi Omori

  2. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899, USA

    Erica D. Kuligowski & Kathryn M. Butler

  3. National Research Council Canada, 1200 Montreal Road Building M-59, Room 225, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0R6, Canada

    Steven M. V. Gwynne

Authors
  1. Hidemi Omori
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  2. Erica D. Kuligowski
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  3. Steven M. V. Gwynne
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  4. Kathryn M. Butler
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Correspondence to Hidemi Omori.

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Omori, H., Kuligowski, E.D., Gwynne, S.M.V. et al. Human Response to Emergency Communication: A Review of Guidance on Alerts and Warning Messages for Emergencies in Buildings. Fire Technol 53, 1641–1668 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-017-0653-3

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