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Experimental study of the effectiveness of emergency signage

Experimental study of the effectiveness of emergency signage

Filippidis, Lazaros ORCID: 0000-0002-1852-0042 , Galea, Edwin R. ORCID: 0000-0002-0001-6665 , Blackshields, Darren ORCID: 0000-0001-8940-0024 and Lawrence, Peter ORCID: 0000-0002-0269-0231 (2009) Experimental study of the effectiveness of emergency signage. Human Behaviour in Fire 2009 - Conference Proceedings. Interscience Communications Ltd., Greenwich, London, UK, pp. 289-300. ISBN 978-0-9556548-3-1

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Abstract

Signage systems play an important role in aiding occupants during both circulation and evacuation. Despite the fact that signage systems are an important component in building wayfinding systems, there is a lack of relevant data regarding how occupants detect, interpret and use the information conveyed by emergency signage. The effectiveness of signage systems is therefore difficult to assess.

In this paper we address this issue through experimentation. The experiment involved measuring the impact of a signage system on a population of 68 test subjects who were instructed to individually vacate a building as quickly as possible via any means they thought appropriate. The evacuation path involved a number of decision points at which emergency signage was available to identify the appropriate path. Through analysis of video footage and data derived from questionnaires, the number of people who saw and utilised the signage information to assist their egress is determined.

The results are then incorporated within the buildingEXODUS software and used in a demonstration of agent interaction with signage systems in a hypothetical evacuation scenario.

Item Type: Book Section
Additional Information: This paper forms part of the Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Human Behaviour in Fire, held 13-15 July 2009, at Robinson College, Cambridge, UK.
Uncontrolled Keywords: wayfinding, experimental study, emergency signage, buildingEXODUS, evacuation modelling,
Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software
T Technology > TH Building construction
Pre-2014 Departments: School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Centre for Numerical Modelling & Process Analysis
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Centre for Numerical Modelling & Process Analysis > Fire Safety Engineering Group
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences > Department of Mathematical Sciences
Related URLs:
Last Modified: 18 Feb 2020 16:20
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/1295

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