Chapter 10: Crowd Dynamics Phenomena, Methodology, and Simulation

This chapter deals with the modeling and simulation of pedestrian flow and evacuation processes, i.e., crow dynamics in emergency and nonemergency situations. This comprises three major areas (1) theory, (2) data, and (3) application. The terms used in this chapter conjecture a hierarchical structure (motivated by the terminology of mathematical logic), where models are derived from theories by interpretation and a simulation is derived from a model by implementation. Of course, theory, data, and application influence each other and neither can be investigated separately. Data collection requires an idea of what to collect (i.e., a theory) and later on interpretation. The application of a model is based on its implementation (simulation). Measurements contain assumptions about the observables. In the context of crowds, one of the questions is: Is the focus on trajectories or aggregated data? A model must be validated, the simulation verified. Validation (doing the right thing) is addressing the interpretation (of the theory) and verification (doing it right) addresses the implementation (of the model).