Publication details
The influence of selected building properties on the evacuation route choice strategy
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | A closer understanding of decision-making processes occurring during evacuation is crucial for designing smarter and safer buildings. Previous studies and evidence from real evacuation events show that people don't always behave as one might expect. Often they neglect evacuation signage and plans or remain committed to their ongoing tasks. When unfamiliar with the building they often apply a retracing strategy and try to exit the building the same way they came in. This seemingly irrational behavior of the evacuees is caused by stress, time pressure, and the lack of currently available environmental information. This contribution presents the design and preliminary results of our online user study where we focus on the influence of different properties of the surrounding built environment on the choice of the evacuation route. More specifically, we focus on the influence of corridor width and length, both influencing the visibility, which is one of the main factors influencing human decision-making during wayfinding, and stairs, which present the connecting point between floor levels and determine the integration of the corridor within the building. We created several virtual 3D models of T-junction crossings, which differed in our studied environmental properties. These models were presented via an online questionnaire using interactive 360° spheric photographs. We logged user mouse interaction and corridor choice. Results from our study will contribute to the body of knowledge in the understanding of human evacuation behavior and can be further used to enhance agentbased evacuation models. |