Microscopic simulation of the elderly evacuation in nursing homes

With the aging society, the evacuation efficiency of older people during emergencies gain increasing attention from the scholars. This study investigates the influence of the residents’ distribution strategy and the desired speed of the older people on evacuation efficiency in the nursing home. Two resident distribution strategies (zoned and random) and four desired speeds (0.6-1.2 m/s at the interval of 0.2 m/s) are considered. Using an enhanced agent-based model capable of intelligently selecting evacuation routes and avoiding collisions, evacuation simulations are conducted in a real-world complex nursing home setting. The trajectories and the evacuation time are obtained and the results demonstrate that increasing desired speed significantly improves evacuation efficiency. While different from pre-conceived results, the zoned distribution strategy does not positively affect evacuation efficiency.