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When does helping reduce evacuation efficiency? Modeling interaction behaviors and their trade-offs in multi-floor built environments

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Sarah Dunn

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Abstract

© 2026 The Authors.Emergencies in multi-floor buildings expose more than architectural bottlenecks; they reveal the trade-offs embedded in human behavior. This study presents an agent-based model that simulates queuing, overtaking, competitive and helping behaviors, and the negative effects of physical interaction (e.g., falling, trampling, tripping and injury) during evacuation. Applied to a virtual four-floor building, 36 simulation experiments reveal four key findings. First, total evacuation time is dominated not by average collective behavior but by the final few agents who move slowly or travel long distances. Second, queuing behavior linked to shared social identity can reduce conflict but slows down 98.6 percent of agents. Third, shared social identity increases crowd stillness time and risk of falling. Finally, helping behaviors, especially toward elderly agents, may significantly delay evacuation when combined with spatial disadvantage. These results highlight a critical tension between social cohesion and systemic efficiency, suggesting the need for behavior-aware evacuation strategies.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Zhang X, Dunn S, Luo Y, Shen Y

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Developments in the Built Environment

Year: 2026

Volume: 26

Online publication date: 20/05/2026

Acceptance date: 19/05/2026

Date deposited: 01/06/2026

ISSN (electronic): 2666-1659

Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2026.100952

DOI: 10.1016/j.dibe.2026.100952

Data Access Statement: Data will be made available on request.

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