Combining pedestrian simulation with a network flow optimization to support security staff in handling an evacuation of a soccer stadium

In our contribution, we present a technique to route virtual pedestrians in a microscopic pedestrian simulation according to an optimal macroscopic dynamic network flow. The objective is to support security staff in planning and handling of major events by providing recommended distribution ratios at walkway junctions. Guiding pedestrians according to these distribution ratios helps to reduce the overall evacuation time by avoiding congested areas and thus preventing potentially dangerous situations upfront. We apply our approach on a real-world scenario, namely the surroundings of a soccer stadium, where we compare simulation results gained with and without an integrated optimization algorithm.