Evacuation drills at the Real Sociedad soccer stadium

IK4-TEKNIKER, a technology centre involved in the European eVACUATE project, an initiative whose ultimate goal is to achieve a better understanding of how emergency evacuations must be managed properly and how safety can be enhanced in terms of logistics and any decisions to be taken regard to addressing critical situations, has carried out its first evacuation drills at the Real Sociedad soccer stadium.

The goal of a simulation

The ultimate goal is to test and validate incident detection algorithms, a major element in this project, by monitoring real-time video footage.

Incident detection is crucial when dealing with situations of this kind as it allows for a rapid reaction and provides optimum evacuation practices.

All the algorithms tested deliver parameters used to measure abnormal movements or gestures via indicators that automatically detect any incidents to be reported to security officers.

Video footage was recorded yesterday using hi-tech cameras (both thermal and hyper-spectral) during evacuation procedures with a crowd at a real venue in order to validate and upgrade incident detection algorithms.

Simulations

Simulated evacuations were carried out before and after the Real Sociedad vs. Eibar soccer match to avoid interfering with the day’s activities.

The first simulation procedure planned within the scope of official evacuation drills regularly scheduled by the Real Sociedad soccer club (that forms part of the training package available to staff members) took place between 8-10 am with the staff, SABICO security agents and Ertzaintza (Basque police force) officers with nearly 80 individuals.

The second simulation, organised by the project researchers themselves, took place between 14:30 - 17:30 pm with approximately 40 people amongst which there were project researchers (from Southampton University, the Institute of Communications, Athens University, the Technical University of Dresden, Crowd Dynamics, Diginext, HKV and IK4-TEKNIKER) and volunteers. During the simulation, a number of abnormal situations requiring crowd evacuation procedures from a soccer stadium were played out.

Another member recently performed these drills at the Athens International airport in the final stages of pilot testing. Real pilot tests, however, will start in September 2016 at the following venues: the Real Sociedad soccer stadium, Metro Bilbao, Athens international airport and aboard one the world’s largest cruise ships currently under construction.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 313161.