EVACUATION OF POPULATION CENTERS USING NETLOGO K. Andrew DeSoto

MODELING: AN OVERVIEW ● useful for programmers and social engineers ● observation of cause-effect relationships in events that: – happen too slowly / quickly to observe – involve danger / safety concerns – occur on scales too large / small to study – happen rarely ● increasingly effective depending on above criteria

USING NETLOGO ● designed by Northwestern University's Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling (CCL) ● includes HubNet package for multiple-user interaction through TI-83 calculators or a network ● version 2.1.0

GRAPHIC EXAMPLE

ADVANTAGES TO NETLOGO ● quick exportation to Java applet format ● interfaces with HubNet ● expansive models library ● helpful code samples ● emphasis on results, not methods

EVACUATION OF POPULATION CENTERS ● a key topic for modeling, based on previous criteria – dangerous – fast – rare – large-scale ● immense, increasing importance – population increasing – danger, wide-scale potential threat risk higher

GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE environment controls real-time event display variable monitors output graph

SIMULATION: ENVIRONMENT ● important aspect – citizen intelligence based around ● potential risk areas: large number of citizens in small area (high population density) ● possible implementations – apartments – parking garages – subway stations

● x- and y-axis dimensions ● maximum evacuation time ● citizen collision choice ● population size ● optional explosions and explosion radius ● additional wall creation ENVIRONMENT CUSTOMIZATION

wall creation population size manual explosion trigger x- and y-axis dimensions timer settings

CITIZEN INTELLIGENCES ● several basic “intelligences” with which to test environment – random bouncers – random walkers – slow, medium, fast speeds – retreaters – “righties” – quadrant movers

CITIZEN INTELLIGENCES ● random walkers vs. quadrant movers t = 0 t = 18

CONCLUSIONS ● advantages to NetLogo: – free, easily available – entry-level language is easy for beginner projects – graphics pre-packaged, simple premade GUI – applets ● disadvantages to NetLogo: – horrible documentation – bulky awkwardness of code lowers intricacy – not a “professional” tool