Analysis of evacuation behavior in a wildfire event (original) (raw)

2018, International journal of disaster risk reduction

Disasters and extreme events, both natural and man-made, can have dramatic implications in terms of loss of human lives, well-being and economic costs. Understanding the demand for travel during disaster events, in particular when evacuations take place, is critical for the efficient management of the event. The usual activity and travel patterns may be completely broken and not at all relevant during an event, when completely different considerations take priority. A large-scale wildfire took place in Haifa on November 24, 2016. On that day, starting at around 10AM, a series of wildfires occurred in the city. As a result, about 40,000 inhabitants (15% of Haifa's population) were evacuated. Shortly after the fire events, a web survey was developed and administered in order to collect data on the activities that residents of the affected areas undertook on that day.