The Influence of Socio-technical Factors on Evacuation Performance of University Buildings

Abstract

This study investigates how social, structural, and technical factors affect evacuation performance of university campus buildings. An agent-based model was developed to simulate evacuations in two structurally distinct university buildings. The model incorporates four key factors: building familiarity, social influence, egress width, and signage. The evacuation performance was assessed using three metrics: 75% evacuation time, density, and exit choice. The main results indicate that building familiarity and egress width were the most important factors influencing evacuation performance. In buildings with a relatively limited number of exits, egress width became more influential than building familiarity. Signage and social influence had modest or no significant influence on evacuation performance. The modest influence of signage tended to increase when familiarity was reduced. The mostly non-significant effect of social influence appeared to depend largely on the degree to which it was formalised. These findings suggest that building managers and policymakers should explore strategies for enhancing occupants’ familiarity with building layouts.