Pedestrian evacuation simulation in indoor emergency situations: Approaches, models and tools

Pedestrian evacuation simulation (PES) provides a low-cost and low-risk method to facilitate safety design and emergency management in indoor environment by describing pedestrian evacuation behaviors and predicting evacuation outcomes in what-if scenarios. The area of PES has witnessed rapid growth over the past few decades, but there lacks an up-to-date review of the existing literature that could comprehensively reflect the latest advancements in this area. To address this need, this paper proposes a three-layer analytical framework for synthesizing the abundant literature on PES approaches, PES models and PES tools, and presents a systematic review of the state of the art in the PES area. The findings point out that (1) the use of high-fidelity PES approaches has become more prevalent over time; (2) the adaptability of PES models to different evacuation scenarios is relatively limited; (3) modeling of human behavioral mechanism is the driving force for PES model advancement; and (4) verification and validation are the major challenges for PES tools. Finally, the paper outlines possible directions for future research and discusses specific challenges to address for each direction. This paper is expected to benefit academics and professionals whose work requires the use of PES tools, provoke innovative studies that would push the boundaries of this area, and advance the understanding of pedestrian evacuation behavioral mechanisms and behavioral intervention measures, which would ultimately lead to enhanced human safety in indoor emergencies.