Global system for transportation simulation and visualization in emergency evacuation scenarios

Simulation-based studies are frequently used for evacuation planning and decision making. Given the complexity of and data availability for transportation systems, most evacuation simulation models focus on certain geographic areas. With routine improvement of OpenStreetMap road networks and LandScan global population distribution data, this paper presents the Toolbox for Urban Mobility Simulations (TUMS). TUMS uses unified data structure for simulation inputs. The toolbox also integrates a supernode trip distribution model as the default simulation parameter to improve the system computational performance. Two levels of visualization tools, including link-based macroscopic visualization and vehicle-based microscopic visualization, are implemented for evacuation performance analysis. For left-hand and right-hand traffic patterns in different countries, the authors propose a mirror technique to experiment with both scenarios without significantly changing traffic simulation models. Sixteen cities in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa are modeled for demonstration. With default traffic simulation models for fast and easy-to-use evacuation estimation and visualization, TUMS also retains the capability of interactive operation for users to adopt customized traffic simulation models. For the first time, TUMS provides a unified platform with which global evacuation researchers can estimate and visualize the performance of transportation systems under evacuation scenarios.