Proposing a Simple Method of Creating Tsunami Evacuation Simulations

As the risk of huge earthquakes and tsunamis increases, the importance of promoting measures centered on community evacuation is growing. While implementing tsunami evacuation, tsunami evacuation simulations are considered effective; however, owing to the challenges in constructing a simulation environment, communities without continued involvement from experts are experiencing a lack of progress in utilizing simulations. Therefore, this study proposes a simple method that enables residents to create community-scale tsunami evacuation simulations to support the consideration and implementation of feasible tsunami evacuation plans. Specifically, this study presents a method in which all the steps required to build a tsunami evacuation simulation, such as creating an evacuation space model, creating an evacuee model, and integrating the results of a tsunami inundation simulation, can be executed in Scratch 3.0, a visual programming environment. The tsunami evacuation simulation prototype demonstrated that the evacuee model adhered to the constructed road network and reached its destination in accordance with the specified evacuation parameters. In the simulation outputs, in the cases of successful evacuation, the IDs and arrival times of successfully evacuated individuals were recorded. In instances of unsuccessful evacuation, the locations and times at which individuals were engulfed by the tsunami were recorded as failures. Through this method, it is expected that local communities can better understand the potential risks and voluntarily implement feasible measures for tsunami evacuation that reflect local needs.