INFORMING WILDFIRE EVACUATION GUIDELINES IN TOURISTIC AREAS

Abstract

Wildfires are increasing around the world and unlike building evacuations, the wildland urban interface (WUI) evacuations consider vehicle movement alongside the behaviour of wildfires. Tourists, as a diverse population, further complicate WUI evacuations due to factors such as language barriers, unfamiliarity with the area, varying levels of risk awareness, and the lack of access to vehicles. Nevertheless, until now, there has not been a complete, evidence-based understanding of how tourists behave during wildfire
evacuations.
This thesis aims to address this problem and minimize the research gap related to this area by defining the key variables influencing the decision-making process of tourists during wildfire evacuation. This is done by performing a scoping review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews approach. Subsequently, these variables were used to create archetypes related to tourists in wildfire evacuation.
Following this, a simulation model of a case study involving tourists evacuating from a campsite was developed. This modelling part aims to evaluate the effectiveness of available modelling approaches in representing tourist evacuations during wildfires and to pinpoint the stages of the evacuation process that have the greatest impact on total evacuation time. Within the modelling part, various evacuation strategies are discussed, along with the factors that influence them.
The analysis findings presented in this thesis offer recommendations for best practices that stakeholders can implement during wildfire evacuations in tourist areas.
This study identifies various insights related to tourists’ evacuation during a wildfire event: Property attachment, past experience, preparedness, safety culture, risk perception, socio-demographics, interaction with authorities, place of residence, length of stay, transportation mode, information, and group dynamics.
Furthermore, the selection of the appropriate evacuation strategy needs to be made wisely, as it depends on various factors. To reduce both pre-movement and movement times, it is essential to address specific actions related to human behaviour and spatial planning such as the location of assembly points and the number of exits available.

Popular Abstract

Wildfires are increasing globally, and evacuating touristic areas where forests
meet human communities is challenging due to tourists' unfamiliarity with their
surroundings. This thesis aims to minimize the research gap in this area. It identifies the key factors influencing tourists' decision-making during wildfire evacuations.
Additionally, it evaluates the effectiveness of current simulation tools in modelling these evacuations.
This work conducted a thorough literature review using the PRISMA framework to
gather information on the factors influencing the evacuation behaviour of
tourists in wildfire scenarios. The scooping review covered 23 varied relevant papers. A systematic methodology was employed to refine the variables extracted from the selected papers by iteratively refining them at various levels. 10 variables were presented at the end of this part of the thesis work namely property attachment, past-experience, preparedness, safety culture, risk perception, socio-demographics, interaction with authorities, place of
residence, length of stay, transportation mode, information and group dynamics.
Following this, a set of tourist archetypes was identified based on a conceptual
methodology. The tourist archetypes were defined by comparing the existing
archetypes related to residents in wildfire evacuations and the likely impact of the selected variables from the literature review.
A simulation model of a case study involving tourists evacuating from a campsite was developed (Punta Milà campsite in northeastern Spain). This modelling part evaluates the effectiveness of available modelling tools in representing
tourist evacuations during wildfires and pinpointing the stages of the evacuation
process that has the greatest impact on total evacuation time. Two software programs were used in this part of the work. The first, Pathfinder
software was used to simulate the pedestrian movement of tourists inside the
campsite. The second, SUMO software, was used to simulate the movement of
vehicles because a part of the evacuation process includes traffic evacuation. Since the pedestrian model (Pathfinder) and the traffic model (SUMO) are not integrated, Python code was used to convert the output from Pathfinder into a suitable format to be used as input for SUMO.
This thesis uncovered the limitations of current simulation tools in modelling the
wildfire evacuation of tourists. It recommends explicitly incorporating the
interaction between tourists and vehicles, integrating the pedestrian and traffic
models, and accounting for human behaviour inputs in the traffic models. This
thesis also investigates research gaps based on the literature review.
These suggestions help to refine and inform guidelines for wildfire evacuation in
touristic areas.

• author: Labhiri, Amina
• supervisor: Enrico Ronchi
• organization: Division of Fire Safety Engineering
• course: VBRM05 20241
• year: 2024
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• keywords: Wildfire evacuation, tourists, traffic modelling, pedestrian modelling, archetypes.
• publication/series: LUTVDG/TVBB
• report number: 5723
• other publication id: LUTVDG/TVBB—5723--SE
• language: English
• id: 9157770
• date added to LUP: 2024-06-10 13:58:01
• date last changed: 2024-06-10 13:58:01