INTERACTIVE VISUALIZATION OF CROWDS FOR THE RESCUE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

Vulnerability of cultural properties can be significantly reduced through specific disaster plans, focused on safeguarding cultural assets in emergency situations. The effectiveness of these plans may be enhanced by the use of innovative technologies for visualization and verification purposes. In this paper we propose an alternative application of the dynamic simulation of large crowds for emergency planning in open spaces. We argue that applications related to the real-time simulation and visualization of crowds might be used also for cultural heritage risk preparedness. The application we propose aims to highlight the need of designing different paths for different goals. In an emergency plan related to cultural assets, crowd dynamics simulation could be used to plan different routes with specific functions: paths for evacuating visitors, and paths for evacuating object. Based on the identification of the first ones, which represent the main priority, the second ones can be designed, as alternative and complementary routes allowing cultural heritage operators to immediately take part in emergency operations and to work over objects salvage actions, without obstructing people salvage or escaping activities. An evaluation of the application of such techniques is reported, with the experimental validation of the behavioral model and the related simulation planned as future work. A possible application of this technique for training operators is also outlined.