Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

The impact of crowd composition on egress performance

Larsson, Anna ; Ranudd, Elin ; Ronchi, Enrico LU orcid ; Hunt, Aoife and Gwynne, Steve LU (2021) In Fire Safety Journal 120.
Abstract

The data that is currently used when designing egress systems for stadia and other high-occupancy buildings was collected decades ago and might not be applicable in today's society. A systematic analysis of crowd movement was performed to investigate egress flows at a large stadium in the UK following four different event types (i.e., a football game, a rugby game, a concert featuring a male singer/songwriter and a concert featuring a female pop artist). Video footage captured the egressing crowds and the relationships between velocities, flows and densities across the different events were established. The results indicate that the crowd composition, along with external factors (e.g., weather), have a measurable impact on the... (More)

The data that is currently used when designing egress systems for stadia and other high-occupancy buildings was collected decades ago and might not be applicable in today's society. A systematic analysis of crowd movement was performed to investigate egress flows at a large stadium in the UK following four different event types (i.e., a football game, a rugby game, a concert featuring a male singer/songwriter and a concert featuring a female pop artist). Video footage captured the egressing crowds and the relationships between velocities, flows and densities across the different events were established. The results indicate that the crowd composition, along with external factors (e.g., weather), have a measurable impact on the velocities, flows and densities observed. These differences are likely linked to the body area occupied by different crowds and the social interaction between members of the crowd. The observed flowrates were all below 60 people/m*min, which is significantly lower than the maximum value (82 people/m*min) recommended in the 2018 Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (the sixth edition of the “Green Guide”). The observed behaviour and flowrates suggest the need to carefully consider the impact of crowd composition when planning stadium egress including emergency evacuation.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Crowd, Egress, Evacuation, Flow, Flowrate, Movement, People density, Stadium
in
Fire Safety Journal
volume
120
article number
103040
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85086515750
ISSN
0379-7112
DOI
10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.103040
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a307a7c9-f049-452c-8932-bf4b15f66200
date added to LUP
2020-07-06 15:24:47
date last changed
2022-04-18 23:20:34
@article{a307a7c9-f049-452c-8932-bf4b15f66200,
  abstract     = {{<p>The data that is currently used when designing egress systems for stadia and other high-occupancy buildings was collected decades ago and might not be applicable in today's society. A systematic analysis of crowd movement was performed to investigate egress flows at a large stadium in the UK following four different event types (i.e., a football game, a rugby game, a concert featuring a male singer/songwriter and a concert featuring a female pop artist). Video footage captured the egressing crowds and the relationships between velocities, flows and densities across the different events were established. The results indicate that the crowd composition, along with external factors (e.g., weather), have a measurable impact on the velocities, flows and densities observed. These differences are likely linked to the body area occupied by different crowds and the social interaction between members of the crowd. The observed flowrates were all below 60 people/m*min, which is significantly lower than the maximum value (82 people/m*min) recommended in the 2018 Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (the sixth edition of the “Green Guide”). The observed behaviour and flowrates suggest the need to carefully consider the impact of crowd composition when planning stadium egress including emergency evacuation.</p>}},
  author       = {{Larsson, Anna and Ranudd, Elin and Ronchi, Enrico and Hunt, Aoife and Gwynne, Steve}},
  issn         = {{0379-7112}},
  keywords     = {{Crowd; Egress; Evacuation; Flow; Flowrate; Movement; People density; Stadium}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Fire Safety Journal}},
  title        = {{The impact of crowd composition on egress performance}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.103040}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.103040}},
  volume       = {{120}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}