Enhancing pedestrian evacuation routes during flood events

Musolino, Giovanni, Ahmadian, Reza ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2665-4734 and Xia, Junqiang 2022. Enhancing pedestrian evacuation routes during flood events. Natural Hazards 112 , pp. 1941-1965. 10.1007/s11069-022-05251-9

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Abstract

The increasing rate of anthropic activities in flood-prone areas and the effects of climate change are aggravating the dangers posed by floods to people. One of the main reasons for fatality during flood events is walking through floodwaters. Although authorities strongly advise against walking in flood waters, evacuations or the accessing of flooded areas by emergency services might be necessary. This research proposes a novel approach to increasing resilience by retrofitting existing infrastructures to enhance evacuation and access routes by reducing flood hazard rate based on flood and pedestrian characteristics. The methodology was applied to flash floods in two case studies in the UK, namely Boscastle and Borth, highlighting that retrofitting small regions of the existing roads and pathways to reduce flood hazard can enhance people’s safety during the evacuation, and hence provides a solution to improve the resilience of the existing environment.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	0921-030X
Funders:	EPSRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 February 2022
Date of Acceptance:	26 January 2022
Last Modified:	17 May 2023 23:28
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/147741

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