This thesis is primarily a theoretical examination of people environment relationships directed towards the performance requirements of buildings for human occupation. It commences with a review of extant behavioural models used in the fields of Life Fire Safety Engineering and Wayfinding. The review includes several other interconnected disciplines and areas of interest such as space syntax and cognitive science. Extant behavioural models are described as essentially mechanical however there is also another, less familiar and not yet fully understood, symbiotic model. The symbiotic model is expanded and a new form of spatial analysis, developmental syntax, presented. Symbiotic models seem capable of providing a theoretical base for both the mechanical and also more subtle and complex relationships between space, social interaction and personal knowledge. Case studies are included as tentative explorations of developmental syntax and the symbiotic model in use and recommendations are made for further research into both developmental syntax and the symbiotic model.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2006. / Vita. Appendices: p. 104-117. Includes bibliographical references (p. 118-124).

Thesis (M.S.C.E.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. / Open access. Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-86).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Köln, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

学位授与大学：京都大学 ; 取得学位: 博士(工学) ; 学位授与年月日: 2007-09-25 ; 学位の種類: 新制・課程博士 ; 学位記番号: 工博第2846号 ; 請求記号: 新制/工/1419 ; 整理番号: 25531 / 1.1.1 Disaster planning and management: an overview With the rapid economic development and urbanization, the cities are growing fast. Throughout the world it is common to observe that large cities and urban agglomerations along with a wide range of opportunities also bring a variety of safety risk. Cities, as those grow bigger and bigger and become more complex, generally become increasingly vulnerable to hazard, both natural and man-made (Misra, 2004). Many cities are located on seismically active zones, near active volcanoes and on areas prone to cyclones and floods and possibilities of damage by these hazards have increased significantly. Due to the lack of proper awareness and preparedness to disasters, the number of casualties affected and economic losses caused by natural disasters have been increasing over recent decades (EM-DAT, 2004). For example, the Tangshan earthquake (July 28, 1976) in China devastated the whole municipality, and killed 242, 000 people with millions of people homeless (Liu, 1985). The Indian Ocean earthquake (December 26, 2004) and subsequent tsunamis caused a total of 229, 866 people lost, including 186, 983 dead and 42, 883 missing (United Nations, 2005). Now, most of the countries have taken various countermeasures to reduce the losses due to disasters. Safety, risk management and disaster preparedness, are now becoming very import aspects of city management in Japan. In the wake of accelerated urban growth and emergence of strong market forces, local area needs and priorities in Japan changed and so was the perception of day to day risks and security from disasters (Misra, 2004). The structural countermeasures are effective in saving people’s lives and properties especially from the small-scale low-impact disasters. While for the low-frequency high-impact disasters, these measures probably cause more losses especially when the risks level greatly exceeds the resilience capacity of infrastructure. That was exactly what happened in the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake (January 17, 1995) in Japan (The Asashi Simbun, 1996). The earthquake also taught people that the impact of a low-frequency high-impact disaster (catastrophic disaster) may exceed the present capacity of the public rescue and relief services. In most of the similar cases of catastrophic disasters, the local governments are found to be not able to provide the sufficient services to the citizens in the time of disaster. Though various types of national or international assistances from outside of the suffered region may be available, such as those provided by NGOs, NPOs and INGOs, that kind of external assistance is not at all sufficient, particularly for rescue, relief and recovery. So, it is needed to stress the need for community capacity building. Both communities and local authorities should be empowered to manage and reduce disaster risk by having access to the necessary information, resources and authority to implement actions for disaster risk reduction (Hyogo Framework, 2005). If the local government is only the decision-maker in such cases, they may inevitablely be in bias due to the lack of local knowledge even with the experts’ help. The local government should also learn from the local residents. On the other hand, the individual citizens and the local community should have sufficient professional advice for preparation in advance to cope up with the sudden disaster shocks (The Asashi Simbun, 1996). Often due to the lack of professional knowledge, the individual citizens and the local community fail to find their best way to get prepared for disaster risks. They also need to learn from the local government, experts, or NGO/NPOs. This kind of two-way risk communications are often called “social co-learning” (Okada, 2005). Japan, realizing the need for promotion of ‘bottom-up’ planning and closer involvement of the civil society in urban development, also brought in appropriate changes in its Urban Planning Law in the 1992 and made it mandatory for the local governments to adopt participatory urban planning at the local level (Misra, 2004). After the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, the local government has started to take the proactive countermeasures in collaboration with the local communities and individual citizens. Institutional changes are also under way, which gradually shifted the conventional type of top-down approach towards the bottom-up approach (multi-stakeholder participatory approach) (Okada et al., 2004). In Japan, self help (“Jijyo” in Japanese) and mutual aid (“Kyojyo” in Japanese) are now more advocated by many policy makers and frequently quoted as keywords for community-based disaster reduction, in the official documents and manuals on disaster planning and management. For example, the Disaster Planning Manual of Kagawa Prefecture (2006) emphasizes the importance of self help, and mutual aid for disaster risk management. Such self-help and mutual-aid activities can enhance the individual citizen’s awareness, and enhance their internal communications with other neighboring individuals and communities. Besides the individuals and the community, disaster volunteers, such as NGOs and NPOs, are also taking more and more important roles in the community’s disaster prevention planning and management. / Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第13375号 / 工博第2846号 / 新制||工||1419(附属図書館) / 25531 / UT51-2007-Q776 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市社会工学専攻 / (主査)教授 岡田 憲夫, 教授 中川 大, 教授 多々納 裕一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

Large lahars threaten communities living near volcanoes all over the world. Evacuations are a critical strategy for reducing vulnerability and mitigating a disaster. Hazard perceptions, transportation infrastructure, and transportation mode choice are all important factors in determining the effectiveness of an evacuation. This research explores the effects of population, whether individuals drive or walk, response time, and exit closures on an evacuation in a community threatened by a large lahar originating on Mount Rainier, Washington. An agent-based model employing a co-evolutionary learning algorithm is used to simulate a vehicular evacuation. Clearance times increase when the population is larger and when exits are blocked. Clearance times are reduced when a larger proportion of agents opt out of driving, and as the model learns. Results indicate evacuation times vary greatly due to spatial differences in the transportation network, the initial population distribution, and individual behaviors during the evacuation.

Traffic from major hurricane evacuations is known to cause severe gridlocks on evacuation routes. Better prediction of the expected amount of evacuation traffic is needed to improve the decision-making process for the required evacuation routes and possible deployment of special traffic operations, such as contraflow. The objective of this dissertation is to develop prediction models to predict the number of daily trips and the evacuation distance during a hurricane evacuation. Two data sets from the surveys of the evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Ivan were used in the models' development. The data sets included detailed information on the evacuees, including their evacuation days, evacuation distance, distance to the hurricane location, and their associated socioeconomic characteristics, including gender, age, race, household size, rental status, income, and education level. Three prediction models were developed. The evacuation trip and rate models were developed using logistic regression. Together, they were used to predict the number of daily trips generated before hurricane landfall. These daily predictions allowed for more detailed planning over the traditional models, which predicted the total number of trips generated from an entire evacuation. A third model developed attempted to predict the evacuation distance using Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), which was able to account for the spatial variations found among the different evacuation areas, in terms of impacts from the model predictors. All three models were developed using the survey data set from Hurricane Katrina and then evaluated using the survey data set from Hurricane Ivan. All of the models developed provided logical results. The logistic models showed that larger households with people under age six were more likely to evacuate than smaller households. The GWR-based evacuation distance model showed that the household with children under age six, income, and proximity of household to hurricane path, all had an impact on the evacuation distances. While the models were found to provide logical results, it was recognized that they were calibrated and evaluated with relatively limited survey data. The models can be refined with additional data from future hurricane surveys, including additional variables, such as the time of day of the evacuation.

Evacuation planning for private-sector organizations is an important consideration given the continuing occurrence of both natural and human-caused disasters that inordinately affect them. Unfortunately, the traditional management approach that is focused on fire drills presents several practical challenges at the scale required for many organizations but especially those responsible for national critical infrastructure assets such as airports and sports arenas. In this research we developed Exitus, a comprehensive decision support system that may be used to simulate large-scale evacuations of such structures. The system is unique because it considers individuals with disabilities explicitly in terms of physical and psychological attributes. It is also capable of classifying the environment in terms of accessibility characteristics encompassing various conditions that have been shown to have a disproportionate effect upon the behavior of individuals with disabilities during an emergency. The system was applied to three unique test beds: a multi-story office building, an international airport, and a major sports arena. Several simulation experiments revealed specific areas of concern for both building managers and management practice in general. In particular, we were able to show (a) how long evacuations of heterogeneous populations may be expected to last, (b) who the most vulnerable groups of people are, (c) the risk engendered from particular design features for individuals with disabilities, and (d) the potential benefits from adopting alternate evacuation strategies, among others. Considered together, the findings provide a useful foundation for the development of best practices and policies addressing the evacuation concerns surrounding heterogeneous populations in large, complex environments. Ultimately, a capabilitiesbased approach featuring both tactical and strategic planning with an eye toward the unique problems presented by individuals with disabilities is recommended.