SFPE Guide to Human Behavior in Fire

SFPE Guide to Human Behavior in Fire
Author: Society of Fire Protection Engineers
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 159
Release: 2018-11-14
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319946978

This single resource for the fire safety community distills the most relevant and useful science and research into a consensus-based guide whose key factors and considerations impact the response and behavior of occupants of a building during a fire event. The Second Edition of SFPE's Engineering Guide: Human Behavior in Fire provides a common introduction to this field for the broad fire safety community: fire protection engineers/fire safety engineers, human behavior scientists/researchers, design professionals, and code authorities. The public benefits from consistent understanding of the factors that influence the responses and behaviors of people when threatened by fire and the application of reliable methodologies to evaluate and estimate human response in buildings and structures. This Guide also aims to lessen the uncertainties in the "people components" of fire safety and allow for more refined analysis with less reliance on arbitrary safety factors. As with fire science in general, our knowledge of human behavior in fire is growing, but is still characterized by uncertainties that are traceable to both limitation in the science and unfamiliarity by the user communities. The concepts for development of evacuation scenarios for performance-based designs and the technical methods to estimate evacuation response are reviewed with consideration to the limitation and uncertainty of the methods. This Guide identifies both quantitative and qualitative information that constitutes important consideration prior to developing safety factors, exercising engineering judgment, and using evacuation models in the practical design of buildings and evacuation procedures. Besides updating material in the First Edition, this revision includes new information on: Incapacitating Effects of Fire Effluent & Toxicity Analysis Methods Occupant Behavior Scnearios Movement Models and Behavioral Models Egress Model Selection, Verification, and Validation Estimation of Uncertainty and Use of Safety Factors Enhancing Human Response to Emergencies & Notification of Messaging The prediction of human behavior during a fire emergency is one of the most challenging areas of fire protection engineering. Yet, understanding and considering human factors is essential to designing effective evacuation systems, ensuring safety during a fire and related emergency events, and accurately reconstructing a fire.

Modeling Human and Organizational Behavior

Modeling Human and Organizational Behavior
Author: Panel on Modeling Human Behavior and Command Decision Making: Representations for Military Simulations
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 1998-08-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0309523893

Simulations are widely used in the military for training personnel, analyzing proposed equipment, and rehearsing missions, and these simulations need realistic models of human behavior. This book draws together a wide variety of theoretical and applied research in human behavior modeling that can be considered for use in those simulations. It covers behavior at the individual, unit, and command level. At the individual soldier level, the topics covered include attention, learning, memory, decisionmaking, perception, situation awareness, and planning. At the unit level, the focus is on command and control. The book provides short-, medium-, and long-term goals for research and development of more realistic models of human behavior.

Fire Safety of Historical Buildings

Fire Safety of Historical Buildings
Author: Gabriele Bernardini
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 117
Release: 2017-04-19
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319557440

This book applies a behavioral point of view to individuals’ fire safety in historic buildings. It outlines theoretical and operative issues, based on recent studies and international guidelines. Firstly, critical issues for Building Heritage fire safety are widely discussed, by including the modelling of human factor and man-environment-fire interference in these architectural spaces. A significant part of the book includes a discussion on emergency modeling and simulation. A source code for representing the fire evacuation process (including man-evacuation facilities interactions) is offered to the reader. Methods for effectiveness assessment of risk-reducing solutions are provided and tested in a case-study. Being a structured approach to occupants-related problems during a fire in heritage buildings, it offers an innovative methodology and practical examples that researchers and designers can use as a guide when proposing and testing solutions. Evaluation indexes for effectiveness assessment (also useful for future guidelines or handbooks) are included. Readers are encouraged to understand these indexes within the proposed approach, so as to extend their applications and possibilities of how to introduce human behaviors-based solutions in other fields. Lastly, attention is focused on the proposal and evaluation of low-impact and not-invasive strategies, such as ones based on wayfinding elements. From this point of view, the pros and cons of wayfinding systems are discussed: these are important today, especially for fire-safety designers, because of the ongoing innovations in this field.

Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics

Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics
Author: Richard D. Peacock
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 862
Release: 2011-06-29
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1441997253

An aging population, increasing obesity and more people with mobility impairments are bringing new challenges to the management of routine and emergency people movement in many countries. These population challenges, coupled with the innovative designs being suggested for both the built environment and other commonly used structures (e.g., transportation systems) and the increasingly complex incident scenarios of fire, terrorism, and large-scale community disasters, provide even greater challenges to population management and safety. Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics, an edited volume, is based on the Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics (PED) 5th International 2010 conference, March 8th-10th 2010, located at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA. This volume addresses both pedestrian and evacuation dynamics and associated human behavior to provide answers for policy makers, designers, and emergency management to help solve real world problems in this rapidly developing field. Data collection, analysis, and model development of people movement and behavior during nonemergency and emergency situations will be covered as well.

Renewable Energy for Smart and Sustainable Cities

Renewable Energy for Smart and Sustainable Cities
Author: Mustapha Hatti
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 571
Release: 2018-11-23
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 303004789X

This book features cutting-edge research presented at the second international conference on Artificial Intelligence in Renewable Energetic Systems, IC-AIRES2018, held on 24–26 November 2018, at the High School of Commerce, ESC-Koléa in Tipaza, Algeria. Today, the fundamental challenge of integrating renewable energies into the design of smart cities is more relevant than ever. While based on the advent of big data and the use of information and communication technologies, smart cities must now respond to cross-cutting issues involving urban development, energy and environmental constraints; further, these cities must also explore how they can integrate more sustainable energies. Sustainable energies are a major determinant of smart cities’ longevity. From an environmental and technological standpoint, these energies offer an optimal power supply to the electric network while creating significantly less pollution. This requires flexibility, i.e., the availability of supply and demand. The end goal of any smart city is to improve the quality of life for all citizens (both in the city and in the countryside) in a way that is sustainable and respectful of the environment. This book encourages the reader to engage in the preservation of our environment, every moment, every day, so as to help build a clean and healthy future, and to think of the future generations who will one day inherit our planet. Further, it equips those whose work involves energy systems and those engaged in modelling artificial intelligence to combine their expertise for the benefit of the scientific community and humanity as a whole.

Social-Behavioral Modeling for Complex Systems

Social-Behavioral Modeling for Complex Systems
Author: Paul K. Davis
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 908
Release: 2019-03-18
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1119484979

This volume describes frontiers in social-behavioral modeling for contexts as diverse as national security, health, and on-line social gaming. Recent scientific and technological advances have created exciting opportunities for such improvements. However, the book also identifies crucial scientific, ethical, and cultural challenges to be met if social-behavioral modeling is to achieve its potential. Doing so will require new methods, data sources, and technology. The volume discusses these, including those needed to achieve and maintain high standards of ethics and privacy. The result should be a new generation of modeling that will advance science and, separately, aid decision-making on major social and security-related subjects despite the myriad uncertainties and complexities of social phenomena. Intended to be relatively comprehensive in scope, the volume balances theory-driven, data-driven, and hybrid approaches. The latter may be rapidly iterative, as when artificial-intelligence methods are coupled with theory-driven insights to build models that are sound, comprehensible and usable in new situations. With the intent of being a milestone document that sketches a research agenda for the next decade, the volume draws on the wisdom, ideas and suggestions of many noted researchers who draw in turn from anthropology, communications, complexity science, computer science, defense planning, economics, engineering, health systems, medicine, neuroscience, physics, political science, psychology, public policy and sociology. In brief, the volume discusses: Cutting-edge challenges and opportunities in modeling for social and behavioral science Special requirements for achieving high standards of privacy and ethics New approaches for developing theory while exploiting both empirical and computational data Issues of reproducibility, communication, explanation, and validation Special requirements for models intended to inform decision making about complex social systems

Science And Human Behavior

Science And Human Behavior
Author: B.F Skinner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2012-12-18
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1476716153

The psychology classic—a detailed study of scientific theories of human nature and the possible ways in which human behavior can be predicted and controlled—from one of the most influential behaviorists of the twentieth century and the author of Walden Two. “This is an important book, exceptionally well written, and logically consistent with the basic premise of the unitary nature of science. Many students of society and culture would take violent issue with most of the things that Skinner has to say, but even those who disagree most will find this a stimulating book.” —Samuel M. Strong, The American Journal of Sociology “This is a remarkable book—remarkable in that it presents a strong, consistent, and all but exhaustive case for a natural science of human behavior…It ought to be…valuable for those whose preferences lie with, as well as those whose preferences stand against, a behavioristic approach to human activity.” —Harry Prosch, Ethics

Assessment of Total Evacuation Systems for Tall Buildings

Assessment of Total Evacuation Systems for Tall Buildings
Author: Enrico Ronchi
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2014-05-27
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1493910744

This SpringerBrief focuses on the use of egress models to assess the optimal strategy for total evacuation in high-rise buildings. It investigates occupant relocation and evacuation strategies involving the exit stairs, elevators, sky bridges and combinations thereof. Chapters review existing information on this topic and describe case study simulations of a multi-component exit strategy. This review provides the architectural design, regulatory and research communities with a thorough understanding of the current and emerging evacuation procedures and possible future options. A model case study simulates seven possible strategies for the total evacuation of two identical twin towers linked with two sky-bridges at different heights. The authors present the layout of the building and the available egress components including both vertical and horizontal egress components, namely stairs, occupant evacuation elevators (OEEs), service elevators, transfer floors and sky-bridges. The evacuation strategies employ a continuous spatial representation evacuation model (Pathfinder) and are cross-validated by a fine network model (STEPS). Assessment of Total Evacuation Systems for Tall Buildings is intended for practitioners as a tool for analyzing evacuation methods and efficient exit strategies. Researchers working in architecture and fire safety will also find the book valuable.