Evacuation models of the future: Insights from an online survey on user’s experiences and needs

This paper presents a summary analysis of data regarding evacuation model user‟s experiences and needs obtained via an online survey. The survey was available in 6 languages: English, German, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and Russian. The different versions allowed the survey to be accessible to an international participant base. The survey was developed by the team at www.Evacmod.net; an evacuation modelling portal for the simulation of human behaviour during emergency situations. Participant responses to the survey in raw data format will be publicly available from the portal to allow model developers/users or any interested parties to analyse the data. In total 198 participants either fully or partially completed the survey. Participants came from some 36 different countries, from a wide range of different education and occupational backgrounds, and used models for a variety of different purposes. The survey consisted of 16 questions addressing issues including perception of importance of model features, usage/awareness of other models, knowledge of model validation/verification, training, and usage of multiple models. The presented analysis provides information for evacuation model developers of user characteristics and subsequent guidance for instructing future model development.