The personal space and the collective behavior of crowd disasters

Abstract

The personal space in dense crowd situations is commonly underestimated. However, the self-awareness of it can prevent and handle risk situations. The aim of this study was to explore theoretically the use of the personal space as a key concept for designing simple computational models related to collective behaviors and crushing events. We used an agent-based model related to transitional rules associated with the Shellings spatial proximity model of segregation. Based on an explorative data analysis and model validation, we found that the dynamics of crowd events showed significant statistical regularities between dense situations and the individual perception of the personal space. These results suggests that crushing events in dense crowd situations are highly probable and that the density levels are the key for delaying the presence of such disasters.