Networking activity for Enhanced Evacuation Drills (NEED)

疏散演习是预先计划的针对特定情景的紧急疏散模拟，目的是提高居住者和有关工作人员的绩效。尽管安全法规和建筑规范为演习提供了信息，但它们的优点仍然没有得到很好的理解，它们对疏散性能的影响也没有得到很好的描述。然而，它们仍然被视为安全规划/建筑认证的关键组成部分。目前进行的疏散演习存在重大问题：1。疏散演习模型的有效性还没有得到很好的理解。演习对参与者来说既有固有的风险，也有巨大的成本（就建筑功能的暂时损失而言）。亚群体往往被排除在演习之外（例如，有医疗问题的群体或关键任务人员），这影响了培训和评估的潜力。然而，新方法/技术的可用性，如增强/虚拟现实、计算模拟、智能传感器、建筑智能和视频分析，意味着我们有一个前所未有的机会来加强我们计划、交付和分析疏散演习或补充活动结果的方式。这使我们能够理清训练效益和演习有效性评估，遵循与循证医学研究实践相媲美的病例对照方法——推动循证疏散演习。在这里，我们探索新的技术、方法和观点，以(a)加强疏散演习（ED）的培训部分，(b)改进对其结果的分析和解释，以及(c)减少参与者的短期风险和操作中断。NEED将建立一个由疏散动力学、消防安全、沉浸式技术、数据科学、人工智能和计算模拟方面的专家组成的联盟，专注于以下问题：目前的ED培训的主要限制是什么？当前评核的主要评估限制是什么？这些限制在受环境影响评估的建筑物和人口中有何不同？演习训练和评估的替代方法是什么？确定的替代方法的主要好处是什么？它们如何被量化？采用这些替代方案有哪些挑战（监管、公众认知、技术、成本等）？下一步将采取哪些措施，确保英国和加拿大合作伙伴之间的合作进一步应对这些挑战？

An evacuation drill is a pre-planned simulation of an emergency evacuation for a specific scenario, with the aim of improving the performance of occupants and staff involved. Although drills are informed by safety legislation and building codes, their merits are still not well-understood, and their impact on evacuation performance not well-characterized. However, they are still seen as a key component of safety planning/building certification.There are significant issues with evacuation drills, as currently executed:1. The effectiveness of the evacuation drill model is not well understood.2. Drills carry both an inherent risk to participants, and a significant cost (in terms of temporary loss of building functionality).3. Sub-populations are often excluded from drills (e.g., those with medical issues, or mission-critical staff), which affect the potential for training and assessment.However, the availability of new approaches/technologies such as augmented/virtual reality, computational simulation, smart sensors, building intelligence and video analytics means that we have an unprecedented opportunity to enhance the way that we plan, deliver and analyze the results of evacuation drills or complementary activities. This allows us to disentangle the training benefits and assessment of drill effectiveness, following a case-control approach comparable to research practices in evidence-based medicine - pushing towards evidence-based evacuation drills.Here, we explore new technologies, methodologies and perspectives to (a) enhance the training component of evacuation drills (ED), (b) improve the analysis and interpretation of their results, and (c) reduce both short-term risk to participants and operational disruption. NEED will establish a consortium of experts in evacuation dynamics, fire safety, immersive tech, data science, artificial intelligence, and computational simulation, to focus on these questions:1. What are the main training limitations of current ED?2. What are the main assessment limitations of current ED?3. How do these limitations vary across the buildings and populations that are subject to ED?4. What are the alternative approaches for drill training and assessment?5. What are the major benefits of the alternative approaches identified? How can they be quantified?6. What are the challenges (regulatory, public perception, technical, cost etc.) in adopting such alternatives?7. What are the next steps for ensuring these challenges are further addressed through collaboration between UK and Canadian partners?