Evaluation methods for evacuation planning

In this paper the main evaluation methods to support evacuation planning in urban system are presented. In most cases, evaluation methods require knowledge of functions for relating variables that represent elements to evaluate. Nevertheless in real applications, functions for modelling evacuation are not always available. In these cases, sometimes it is necessary to use a method without the requirement for an explicit a priori determination of these functions. In this paper we propose two classes of methods to compare an evacuation plan, based on efficiency measures. An evacuation is represented by means of a virtual production process. An efficiency criterion is adopted to compare different evacuation process. Parametric and non parametric methods to estimate efficiency are compared. Input and output variables to represent an evacuation process are analysed.