The 6th International Conference on Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics (PED2012) showcased research on human locomotion. This book presents the proceedings of PED2012. Humans have walked for eons; our drive to settle the globe began with a walk out of Africa. However, much remains to discover. As the world moves toward sustainability while racing to assess and accommodate climate change, research must provide insight on the physical requirements of walking, the dynamics of pedestrians on the move and more. We must understand, predict and simulate pedestrian behaviour, to avoid dangerous situations, to plan for emergencies, and not least, to make walking more attractive and enjoyable. PED2012 offered 70 presentations and keynote talks as well as 70 poster presentations covering new and improved mathematical models, describing new insights on pedestrian behaviour in normal and emergency cases and presenting research based on sensors and advanced observation methods. These papers offer a starting point for innovative new research, building a strong foundation for the next conference and for future research.

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.

This book reflects the latest research trends, methods, and experimental results in the field of electrical and information technologies for rail transportation, which covers abundant state-of-the-art research theories and ideas. As a vital field of research that is highly relevant to current developments in a number of technological domains, the subjects it covered include intelligent computing, information processing, communication technology, automatic control, etc. The objective of the proceedings is to provide a major interdisciplinary forum for researchers, engineers, academicians, and industrial professionals to present the most innovative research and development in the field of rail transportation electrical and information technologies. Engineers and researchers in academia, industry, and government will also explore an insightful view of the solutions that combine ideas from multiple disciplines in this field. The volumes serve as an excellent reference work for researchers and graduate students working on rail transportation and electrical and information technologies.

This book reflects the latest research trends, methods, and experimental results in the field of electrical and information technologies for rail transportation, which covers abundant state-of-the-art research theories and ideas. As a vital field of research that is highly relevant to current developments in a number of technological domains, the subjects it covered include intelligent computing, information processing, communication technology, automatic control, etc. The objective of the proceedings is to provide a major interdisciplinary forum for researchers, engineers, academicians, and industrial professionals to present the most innovative research and development in the field of rail transportation electrical and information technologies. Engineers and researchers in academia, industry, and government will also explore an insightful view of the solutions that combine ideas from multiple disciplines in this field. The volumes serve as an excellent reference work for researchers and graduate students working on rail transportation and electrical and information technologies.

Due to an increasing number of reported catastrophes all over the world, the safety especially of pedestrians today, is a dramatically growing field of interest, both for practitioners as well as scientists from various disciplines. The questions arising mainly address the dynamics of evacuating people and possible optimisations of the process by changing the architecture and /or the procedure.

Crowds in the 21st Century presents the latest theory and research on crowd events and crowd behaviour from across a range of social sciences, including psychology, sociology, law, and communication studies. Whether describing the language of the crowd in protest events, measuring the ability of the crowd to empower its participants, or analysing the role of professional organizations involved in crowd safety and public order, the contributions in this volume are united in their commitment to a social scientific level of analysis. The crowd is often depicted as a source of irrationality and danger – in the form of riots and mass emergencies. By placing crowd events back in their social context – their ongoing historical and proximal relationships with other groups and social structures – this volume restores meaning to the analysis of crowd behaviour. Together, the studies described in this collection demonstrate the potential of crowd research to enhance the positive experience of crowd participants and to improve design, planning, and management around crowd events. This book was originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Social Science.

This book presents an overview of modeling definitions and concepts, theory on human behavior and human performance data, available tools and simulation approaches, model development, and application and validation methods. It considers the data and research efforts needed to develop and incorporate functions for the different parameters into comprehensive escape and evacuation simulations, with a number of examples illustrating different aspects and approaches. After an overview of basic modeling approaches, the book discusses benefits and challenges of current techniques. The representation of evacuees is a central issue, including human behavior and the proper implementation of representational tools. Key topics include the nature and importance of the different parameters involved in ASET and RSET and the interactions between them. A review of the current literature on verification and validation methods is provided, with a set of recommended verification tests and examples of validation tests. The book concludes with future challenges: new scenarios and factors for future model developments, addresses the problem of using deterministic and/or stochastic approaches and proposes, and discusses the use of evacuation models for supporting timely decisions in real-time. Written by international experts, Evacuation Modeling Trends is designed for those involved in safety, from emergency and intervention personnel to students, engineers and researchers.