Guest Editorial: The Significance of Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics

Excerpt

The past decade has provided numerous examples of the devastation that can occur when hazards intersect with human vulnerability, from the tragic loss of life in the 2001 WTC terrorist attack, to Hurricane Katrina, and, more recently, in the ongoing devastation of post-earthquake/tsunami Japan as they struggle to contain the meltdown of a nuclear reactor. The focus of this journal, fire, kills thousands of people in structures around the world, and motivational events, in particular, remind us of the repeated and on-going dangers that arise in specific contexts, such as crowded nightclubs (e.g., the 2003 Station nightclub in Rhode Island and the 2009 Lame Horse nightclub in Russia) or in communities in the wildland/urban interface (e.g., the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia). Pedestrian hazards, such as the constrained conditions that led to the 2010 Love Parade incident in Germany where individuals were crushed outside of a pedestrian tunnel, also continue to cost lives year after year. …