Applying the lessons of the attack on the World Trade Center, 11th September 2001, to the design and use of interactive evacuation simulations

Johnson, C.W. (2005) Applying the lessons of the attack on the World Trade Center, 11th September 2001, to the design and use of interactive evacuation simulations. In: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Portland, Oregon, 2-7 April 2005, pp. 651-660. ISBN 1-58113-998-5 (doi: 10.1145/1054972.1055062)

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Publisher's URL: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1054972.1055062

Abstract

The collapse of buildings, such as terminal 2E at Paris' Charles de Gaule Airport, and of fires, such as the Rhode Island, Station Night Club tragedy, has focused public attention on the safety of large public buildings. Initiatives in the United States and in Europe have led to the development of interactive simulators that model evacuation from these buildings. The tools avoid some of the ethical and legal problems from simulating evacuations; many people were injured during the 1993 evacuation of the World Trade Center (WTC) complex. They also use many concepts that originate within the CHI communities. For instance, some simulators use simple task models to represent the occupants' goal structures as they search for an available exit. However, the recent release of the report from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (the '9/11 commission') has posed serious questions about the design and use of this particular class of interactive systems. This paper argues that simulation research needs to draw on insights from the CHI communities in order to meet some the challenges identified by the 9/11 commission.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Additional Information:© ACM, 2005. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1054972.1055062
Keywords:evacuation, safety, simulation, user modeling
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Johnson, Professor Chris
Authors: Johnson, C.W.
Subjects:Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
Publisher:ACM Press
ISBN:1-58113-998-5
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2005 ACM Press
First Published:First published in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher including additional information statement.

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