Wayfinding Systems

Keywords: Building heritage safety Historical theatres fire safety Evacuation in historical buildings Human behaviors in evacuation Reversible systems for human safety Intelligent evacuation guidance systems a b s t r a c t Fire risk in Architectural Heritage represents a fundamental problem for occupants' safety. Italian-style historical theatres are one of the most interesting examples because of their historic and artistic value, high fire vulnerability, fire sources and occupants' features (many people are not familiar with the architectural spaces). Current fire safety regulations approaches for similar Architectural Heritage generally suggest massive and irreversible interventions in order to improve the occupants' level of safety: main related solutions concern with interventions on building layout (e.g. introduction of fireproof elements ; increasing dimension and number of evacuation paths and exits). This really implies a conflict in preserving original architectural characteristics. Besides, experiments demonstrate how these adopted solutions can be insufficient in improving the individuals' safety level, especially in case of high occu-pants' density and people who are unfamiliar with the building itself, because of individuals' behaviours in emergency conditions. An efficient emergency evacuation layout has to be able to help evacuating occupants, especially in smoke or blackout conditions. " Intelligent Evacuation Guidance Systems " (IEGS) could monitor human behaviours (how people move) and related criticisms in the evacuation process (e.g. slowing down along paths, paths blockage). Then, they could elaborate these data through smart inducing algorithm so as to suggest dynamic evacuation paths to occupants. In this way, IEGS can effectively suggest the " best " evacuation path to occupants depending on the effective human behaviours. In this paper, an IEGS is firstly defined by introducing suggested low impact environmental components and their related requirements. In particular, occupants' behaviours are associated to evacuees' density along egress paths, doors and exits, by using indoor individuals' tracking systems (e.g. RFID, Wireless localiza-tion). A density-based algorithm based on Level-of-Service conditions is adopted for evaluating possible overcrowding phenomena and identify the best evacuation paths. Directional electrically-illumined signs are used so as to indicate the proper direction to occupants. Wireless communication between the system elements is required. Each element is provided with backup power supply. Then, the proposed IEGS is evaluated by applying it to a significant case study (the " Gentile da Fabriano theatre " in Fabri-ano, AN). Interactions between occupants and IEGS are reproduced within a validated fire evacuation simulator (FDS + EVAC), and the system effectiveness is evaluated by performing evacuation simulation for the whole building. Comparisons of evacuation times between the original scenario and the IEGS-related one are proposed. Total maximum egress time is reduced down to 26% in the IEGS scenario (40% for levels with 3 or more different possible paths). The number of people using secondary paths (that are also the less crowded ones) raises to 88%. IEGS elements correctly and fully interact with people by understanding their evacuation behaviour and suggesting them the most appropriate (clearest) path: hence, the overall evacuation efficiency can be so increased by virtue of this " behavioural design " approach. Besides, it is strongly important to underline how IEGS elements provide no architectural modifications.

"ABSTRACT (contact the author for a copy of the full paper)

Cultural and historical structures present special problems for fire safety. Unlike conventional buildings, safety of the building and contents often assumes social values which may rival the safety of the occupants. Higher risks to occupants are routinely permitted in order to avoid destroying the historical fabric of the experience. However these risks are rarely quantified and may be affected by Curators’ (Historic building operators) inappropriate reliance on relatively ineffective technical measures. This is often encouraged by regulators and codes that may lack either jurisdiction over older buildings or not have useful analytical tools for safety in older buildings.
Fires may be started by accident, arson, war or terrorism. In the modern era, there is a greater appreciation of the historic heritage contained in older buildings, but at the same time some hazards has increased and some precautions have been neglected. In many cases, (such as painted ceilings) the difference between building and contents may be very small. Exit pathways are very different from modern buildings and exits may not be easily recognized.

The evacuation problems of historic buildings are unusually severe. Occupants of historic buildings are usually alert but often elderly and totally unfamiliar with the surroundings. Many are often tourists from a wide variety of countries and cultural backgrounds. Handicaps are common. Historic buildings are used as assembly occupancies for wedding concerts receptions or other celebrations.
The contents of historic buildings often include priceless works of art and other historical artifacts. Buildings often include libraries archives or similar collections. Curators who lack familiarity with fires my over estimate the damage that water can do and under estimate the damage from fire or smoke.

This combination of over reliance on inadequate and inappropriate technical measures and very high occupancy loads can produce enormous conflicts in the operational problem of evacuating people and protecting the structure at the same time.
The operational problem of evacuating people versus protecting the historic structures and contents may be overlooked in the creation of overoptimistic fire plans. As just one example the existing staff often do not have clearly delineated tasks in a fire emergency. The precise balance between evacuation and property protection may not be spelled out in a way that creates an optimum response.
The problem needs to be addressed on several levels. Fire and Evacuation models may be capable of describing the magnitude of the fire risk to the occupants. However few such buildings have the kind of exit systems and conditions that are routinely used in the validation of evacuation models. Secure exit paths may be almost unknown. At every stage in the fire response staff may be needed to direct an evacuation in accordance with rapidly changing conditions. Creation of effective staff response requires what has been described as a command and control environment. In such an environment evacuation decisions are made dynamically (command) and implemented by suitable Control systems. We therefore explore the potential for use of evacuation models in a dynamic command and control environment applicable to historic structures. We contrast the assumptions routinely made in models with the reality of historic buildings. The outcome of such an effort are a series of specific requirements for the adaptation of evacuation models to the historic environment. A small sample of high value historic structures with historic contents can be used to illustrate the evacuation problem.

The Representative buildings we explore are :

• Doges Palace Venice: a very large historic building with complex exits that contains permanent artwork and is used for Public receptions. Major problems include very large spaces used for assembly occupancy, tours looping through the tiny corridors of the prison and hidden spaces.
• Ducal Palace Urbino: big and complex historic building that now contains important art collection.
• Palazzo Vecchio Florence: Former city hall now art museum still used for assemblies.
• Hohensalzburg Fortress Salzburg Austria: a rambling episcopal residence and fortress on the top of a defensive hill.
• Uffizi Gallery Florence: World renowned art collection in a Renaissance office building converted to an art gallery hundreds of years ago.
• Ca’ Rezzonico Venice: very large private home (palazzo) converted to an art gallery.
• Landeszeughaus Graz: 5 story 16th century wooden Armory with priceless collection of Weapons.

For technical reasons we have deliberately excluded Churches and similar religious buildings from this analysis but the remaining buildings illustrate a wide range of potential evacuation problems. It should be noted that this is not in any way an analysis of the current level of fire protection or evacuation planning in these buildings, but instead analyzes the potential for command & control evacuations and the problem of integrating command and control into models.

For a pedestrian evacuation in a historic building the following command and control functions might be relevant.

• Prepare –take action conducive to the evacuation.
• Start- Starting an evacuation requires giving a command with a directional component.
• Halt- Halting and evacuation flow is often necessary to avoid chaos or to prepare for a redirection of the flow.
• Divert- Change the direction of an evacuation.
• Reverse Reversing an evacuation flow is one of the most complex and difficult maneuvers but may be necessary if the evacuation route is blocked and there are no alternatives."

The blind and visually impaired people are facing a number of challenges in their daily life. One of the major challenges is finding their way both indoor and outdoor. For this reason, routing and navigation independently, especially in urban areas are important for the blind. Most of the blind undertake route finding and navigation with the help of a guide. In addition, other tools such as a cane, guide dog or electronic aids are used by the blind. However, in some cases these aids are not efficient enough in a wayfinding around obstacles and dangerous areas for the blind. As a result, the need to develop effective methods as decision support using a non-visual media is leading to improve quality of life for the blind through their increased mobility and independence. In this study, we designed and implemented an outdoor mobile sensor-based wayfinding system for the blind. The objectives of this study are to guide the blind for the obstacle recognition and the design and implementation of a wayfinding and navigation mobile sensor system for them. In this study an ultrasonic sensor is used to detect obstacles and GPS is employed for positioning and navigation in the wayfinding. This type of ultrasonic sensor measures the interval between sending waves and receiving the echo signals with respect to the speed of sound in the environment to estimate the distance to the obstacles. In this study the coordinates and characteristics of all the obstacles in the study area are already stored in a GIS database. All of these obstacles were labeled on the map. The ultrasonic sensor designed and constructed in this study has the ability to detect the obstacles in a distance of 2cm to 400cm. The implementation and the results obtained from the interview of a number of blind persons who employed the sensor verified that the designed mobile sensor system for wayfinding was very satisfactory.

Abstract Architectural Heritage is often prone to fire risk especially when many significant wooden structures with a particular historic and artistic value are present. This is the case of the Italian style historical theatres. Increasing fire safety of this architectural heritage generally clashes with preserving the original building features: massive and irreversible interventions are often needed so as to respect current severe regulations. Moreover, upgrading interventions can be insufficient so as to effectively improve occupants’ safety level, especially in overcrowded spaces and when people do not know much of the building itself. Occupants’ safety depends on their behaviours and their possibility to rapidly evacuate to a safe place. One of the most effective ways to help them to achieve this aim seems to be the adoption of a good emergency evacuation wayfinding system, especially in smoke or black-out conditions. This paper analyses the effectiveness of a reversible, easy-to-remove and low-impact system for evacuation guidance based on photoluminescent materials (PLM). The proposed continuous wayfinding system (CWS) is composed by PLM tiles along evacuation paths (both corridors and stairs). The application to a case study, the Italian style historical theatre “Gentile da Fabriano”, is then provided. Tests involve more than 100 individuals in smoke and black out conditions. CWS effectiveness was compared to a traditional punctual system in terms of motion speeds (for single pedestrians) and total evacuation time (for the whole building evacuation drill). Questionnaires filled in by involved pedestrians qualitatively evaluated the individuals’ acceptance of CWS. Tests with CWS show that individual's motion speed rises up to 50% and the total evacuation time is reduced down to 25% in respect to the traditional system. Comparisons with previous studies on PLM signs are provided. CWS can be easily introduced in this kind of historical theatres so as to increase the occupants’ safety level.