An Optimal Model of Post-Disaster Emergency Evacuation in Urban Areas, Using Genetic Algorithm (Case Study District 3 of Kerman)

Given the growth and development of urbanization, natural and man-made disasters, and their impact on metropolitan development, it is essential to provide an innovative solution to preserve the human life. Providing a dynamic model for emergency evacuation of the population in a short time, the scene management, and increased speed and quality of service delivery during and after a crisis are of particular importance. The purpose of this study is to identify and find the best route for evacuation since the chaos caused by the crisis makes serious problems for evacuation. The main problem is that the urban streets are disrupted during an event or disaster and cannot solve the emerged crisis, because in these conditions, most of the routes have been blocked or have lost their effectiveness. The method used in this study is descriptive – analytical. In order to identify effective measures for emergency evacuation, experts’ opinions were used and for ranking the criteria, Expert Choice software was applied in GIS. Genetic algorithm is used because of its simplicity and high speed in analysis of high dimensions networks in order to determine the optimal route to reach the safe areas. To prepare data layers of streets and city blocks and suitable spaces for emergency evacuation with population data of blocks and street widths, GIS database of Kerman municipality was used. The results show that the proposed method finds the shortest path to reach safe areas while taking into account the population density and width of streets. Thus, it can be effectively used for emergency evacuation.