Almost 10% of New Zealand’s population, approximately 430,000 people, live in a tsunami evacuation zone and need to evacuate promptly following a “long-or-strong” earthquake. In some areas, people have less than half an hour to evacuate from the tsunami zone and away from the incoming tsunami wave. Evacuation becomes particularly challenging for densely populated areas, where congestion can potentially slow down the movement of people from the danger zone. One such area is Wellington, where people in the densely packed central business district (CBD) need to evacuate to higher ground quickly in case of locally generated tsunamis. Areas like Wellington CBD face challenges not only due to congestion, but also due to the time taken to exit buildings. Evacuation planning for locally generated tsunamis can be informed by evacuation modelling, but current models fail to address many of the factors that are important for densely populated areas, like the impact of congestion on movement and departure time from buildings.
In this PhD project, which is part of the MBIE Endeavour project “Next-generation early warning: Forecasting tsunami and multi-hazard impacts as local earthquakes strike”, you will use models to simulate evacuation from tsunami prone areas in the Wellington region. You may test and use a wide range of models, which you need to calibrate and modify to account for the unique conditions of the Wellington case study. Familiarity with evacuation modelling and basic programming skills are therefore essential for the PhD. In addition, experience of Virtual Reality (VR) is beneficial as the PhD project may involve data collection in VR experiments or visualisations using VR environments.
Supervisors
Primary Supervisor: Professor Daniel Nilsson
Other Supervisor(s): William Power; Dr Wai Wong
Key qualifications and skills
Computer science, civil/mechanical/fire engineering, or other relevant discipline. Past experience of pedestrian/traffic modelling is desired. Experience of working with Virtual Reality is a plus.
Does the project come with funding
Fees + levy + scholarship of 35kNZD/year paid for 3 years
How to apply
Apply by email to primary supervisor with CV etc.
Keywords
tsunami, evacuation, egress, modelling, disaster mitigation, high-rise buildings, dense urban environments, pedestrian movement, traffic
