Disaster management and security planning

How quickly can you evacuate a facility or area of the city?
Where are the weaknesses in the contingency plan?
What is the impact on other parts of the business or city operations?
Will the investment provide sufficient protection based on the level of risk?

Colour coded people highlight which area of the building they came from and their level of panic. Information collected during the simulation tracks the length of time people spent in the building and evacuation routes taken.

Building effective plans to handle disaster recovery situations has gained significant momentum over recent years. An understanding of how to deal with particular scenarios and what effects those scenarios might have on the effectiveness of the organisation are key to ensuring the safety of staff and the protection of property. Computer based simulation offers a unique insight into the potential issues these situations might give rise to and also a quantitative methodology for the building of robust and effective contingency plans.

The areas being explored range from;
Examining the implications of increasing security checks within places such as airports or company foyers;
Looking at the issues of building evacuation in the event of a major disaster or breach in security;
Reviewing strategies for area evacuation in the event of a major disaster such as a chemical plant explosion.

These situations can give rise to a large number of potential outcomes, and as a result lends itself to computer simulation. Despite the fact that no model will give a cast iron guarantee as to how staff or customers might react in a given situation simply being able to explore the potential options is of immense value.

The models allows experts to evaluate quickly a variety of scenarios, quantifying important details such as total evacuation times, potential queue build up in parts of a facility and perform “what if” type experiments varying numbers of people, changing exit management strategies or changing the number of marshal’s and security personnel and where they should be located.

Importantly a major benefit of these exercises comes from being able to effectively train staff in how to handle a wide range of issues. Interactive front ends to the simulation allow the user to test contingency plans by making real time decisions and seeing their impact in a risk free environment.

Vehicle volumes and destinations are built into the model. Major events causing highway closures and route conflicts between evacuating traffic and emergency service access are then overlaid in order to determine impact on levels of congestion and determine appropriate management strategies

Using the latest in computer simulation modelling software, users can develop accurate 3D representations of facilities or geographic locations and then superimpose the flow of people or vehicles from key areas. The models will incorporate obstacles, decision rules for movement into or out of the area and detailed information such as travel speeds and individuals decision styles. Simple rule selection allows users to build up real life scenarios exploring options such as the impact of individuals who panic and thus do not take the most direct route or who create congestion issues because of their route decisions. The effect of “bottlenecks” such as restricted exitways and how large queue areas may affect the escape routes, which are used, can also be evaluated.

Ultimately these findings lead to the development of robust contingency plans and the implementation of improved signage within buildings or pre-planned traffic management strategies. The interactive and graphical nature of these solutions will also ensure effective communication of ideas and help justify plans for providing the appropriate levels of staff and equipment.

Data can be recorded and exported in a number of formats in order to provide the greatest understanding of the scenarios being modelled. The data shown to the left highlights the evacuation times and the range of distances travelled to reach safety.

In addition to disaster planning the same tools are being used to assess strategies to support heightened security measures. Balancing the impact of closing or restricting certain routes into or out of facilities for instance has an impact on the effective movement of staff, customers and goods. Thus an understanding must be reached which ensures the correct level of security, contingency planning and effective running of the organisation.?

The results from these studies helps to speed up understanding, quantify the cost and magnitude of potential issues as well as saving significant time when producing plans. Importantly once completed the visual nature to the tools means that short “virtual world” videos can be produced and either put onto the corporate intranet or copied to CD in order to effectively communicate the plans to all interested parties, highlighting items such as effective escape routes.

Flight departure data together with staff numbers and security information are used to identify bottlenecks, anticipated delays and alternative strategies.

For more information contact Saker Solutions at info@sakersolutions.com or call 01527 892296