Emergency and evacuation management strategies in earthquakes: towards holistic and user-centered methodologies for their design and evaluation

Facing the immediate response to an earthquake emergency in the Urban Built Environment (UBE) by ensuring an adequate safety level for citizens means solving critical issues in the immediate disaster aftermath, i.e. in the evacuation process. In this phase, people should leave their positions, move in the UBE and gather in assembly areas where to find support from First Responders. Hence, emergency and evacuation strategies and planning should be based on solving dangerous interactions between survivors (i.e. evacuees), earthquake-stricken UBE (defined as a network of buildings and Open Spaces) and rescuers’ management systems. A user-centered standpoint is adopted in this chapter, basing on human evacuation behaviors and needs. Consolidated practices are summarized and the role of holistic and simulation-based approaches in innovative evaluations is introduced. To this end, Key Performance Indicators are also discussed in view of supporting safety designers, local authorities and First Responders to outline “hot-spots” in UBE and coordinate integrated resilience-increasing strategies.