Optimization of escape routes for the Hanse Sail

The Hanse Sail in Rostock is one of the largest gatherings of traditional sailing ships and museum ships worldwide.

Veranstaltung Hanse Sail am Hafen Rostock
Facts
Client: ABS Sicherheitsdienst GmbH
Task: Evacuation simulation
Result: The placement of escape routes was optimized

Background

The folk festival has been held annually since 1991 on the second weekend in August in the Rostock city harbor area. Visitors have the opportunity to experience traditional seafaring up close as crew members on ships. There are also numerous stages, market stalls, and rides on land. The festival is visited by around one million people every year.
Logo, ABS Sicherheitsdienst
“Thanks to the simulation, it was possible to show that sometimes less is more.”

Objective of the simulation


Our Approach

Our client, ABS Alarm- Bewachungs- und Sicherheitsdienst GmbHwanted to use accu:rate's simulation to review and optimize its evacuation plan. The questions that arose were:

  • How long does it take to evacuate the premises?
  • Will there be traffic jams, and if so, where?
  • How long will the traffic jams last?
  • What measures will help to speed up the evacuation?

In addition to a detailed site plan specifying the routes and areas for stalls, rides, and showmen, we also had a high-resolution aerial photo taken shortly before the start of the 2015 Hanse Sail.

The aerial photo included all stalls and showmen, allowing us to make a very interesting target/actual comparison. Unexpected but very pleasing: complete evacuation is actually 8% faster with the real geometry than with the planned geometry, because an important exit was wider in reality than in the plan.

Good input data is essential for a simulation in order to make reliable predictions.

That's why we are very happy that our partner Qounts carried out a visitor count for the Hanse Sail. There is no admission control at the Hanse Sail – thanks to Qounts, we still had very good input data regarding the number of visitors to the Hanse Sail.

Results

Working iteratively and in collaboration with ABS Sicherheitsdienst GmbH and Qounts, we tested various measures and accelerated the complete evacuation by up to 25% depending on the scenario. Of the various measures we reviewed, two resulted in the greatest improvement. The first was, unsurprisingly, two new emergency exits near a large stage. The second measure was not exactly intuitive and, in our view, demonstrates very well what simulations are capable of: a single escape route, which at 3 meters was still too narrow, led to a large backlog. Removing this escape route eliminated the congestion and greatly accelerated the evacuation! This example clearly shows that even seemingly simple cases can hold surprises. In some cases, additional escape routes lead to congestion and thus block larger areas – instead of relieving other routes.
crowd:it, Simulationsbild, Optimierung der Fluchtwege für die Hanse Sail

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