A generalized validation procedure for pedestrian models

Abstract Pedestrian models need to be validated before being applied to real-life planning. Thus, the validation of these models is worthy of special investigation. In this work, we perform two validation exercises with the pedestrian models named FDS+Evac and JuPedSim based on a well-controlled pedestrian experiment. A comprehensive combination of multiple characteristics is used to enhance the reliability of validation results, including model stability, pedestrian flow, time series of density and velocity, spatiotemporal profiles and pedestrian trajectories. The results show that both FDS+Evac and JuPedSim have weaknesses in reproducing full pedestrian characteristics realistically. Our validation exercises illustrate that single characteristic is not enough to guarantee a reliable validation result and a comprehensive combination of multiple characteristics is necessary. This work demonstrates the defects in most of existing validation of pedestrian models and presents a general validation procedure for pedestrian models in future research.