Framework for Evacuation Routes

Becky Tuke, Senior Transportation Engineer, Abley

Thursday 31 March, 12.30 - 1.00pm

While transport systems enable people to get to and from their destinations on a day-to-day basis, their ability to enable people to evacuate during an emergency is critical to keeping people safe. In a natural hazard-caused disaster, people must evacuate if there is an unacceptable risk to their safety, or if the hazards involved render the area uninhabitable. Abley recently undertook research for Waka Kotahi to develop a framework and methodology for identifying, planning, designing and assessing emergency evacuation routes in the event of a natural disaster. The research and resulting framework consist of three parts: evacuation factors, evacuation scenarios, and evacuation route identification and assessment. The presentation will discuss how the framework can be applied pre-event to identify and evaluate potential route options, or during an event to assess potential routes in real time. Two case studies will demonstrate how the framework can be applied for different scenarios.