Effects of child pick-up behavior on emergency evacuations

The child pick-up behavior of parents during an emergency can cause heavy traffic congestion and failing to evacuate an affected area successfully. In this study, we analyzed the effect of child pick-up behavior using, as an example, a nuclear power plant accident caused by an earthquake, which is a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sang Hoon Jang, Ha Hwang, Ph.D., Ji-Bum Chung, Ph.D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2022-07-01
Series:Nuclear Engineering and Technology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1738573322000705
Description
Summary:The child pick-up behavior of parents during an emergency can cause heavy traffic congestion and failing to evacuate an affected area successfully. In this study, we analyzed the effect of child pick-up behavior using, as an example, a nuclear power plant accident caused by an earthquake, which is a typical no-notice emergency. A quake was assumed to occur near the Shin-Kori nuclear power plant in Ulsan, Korea, resulting in a nuclear power plant accident. An agent-based dynamic simulation model using VISSIM was employed to conduct sensitivity analyses with different child pick-up rates. The results confirmed that parents are a major cause of congestion and a vulnerable class in an emergency evacuation. The child pick-up behavior caused significant traffic congestion, and parents who pick up their children showed a higher evacuation failure rate.
ISSN:1738-5733