Would you like to contribute to research to improve evacuation strategies for people with mobility impairments?

Research is underway to understand and implement solutions to support mobility-impaired people during a multi-story building evacuation.

Fire and Emergency Fire Engineering Team Leader Amy Harpur is working with University of Canterbury Professor Daniel Nilsson to undertake research that will help to design more inclusive and easier ways of evacuating from multi-story buildings.

The information gathered throughout the course of the research will be used to create New Zealand-specific guidance for the design of evacuation systems that will better support individuals with mobility impairments.

During emergency evacuations of multi-story buildings, often the only evacuation route from an upper level is via stairs which poses significant challenges to people with mobility impairments.

Amy says the research will utilise Virtual Reality (VR) technology to simulate emergency evacuation environments. It will look at different evacuation situations to explore the challenges faced by mobility impaired building occupants.

“Participants will be immersed in a fictional VR building and during the experiment we will capture their experience in an interview”.

This innovative research method will help to identify underlying issues people may have whilst evacuating, including how these evacuation options are communicated to residents. 

The research outcomes will be used to create trial designs for equipment or systems to address the problems identified. These designs will then be tested in a revised VR environment. 

Amy is inviting anyone who would usually face difficulties using stairs, particularly wheelchair or mobility aid users, to get in touch if they are interested in participating in the study.

All other personnel who could offer a useful perspective on this research are also encouraged to reach out.

Click on this link https://canterbury.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_083kVwAZieDsEBg(external link)

or scan the QR code below to register your interest in taking part in the VR experiments or just to find out more about the research. You can also contact Amy directly on amy.harpur@canterbury.ac.nz

Professor Nilsson recently provided an insight into this research at the Australasian Fire Authority Council conference, AFAC24, which you can watch here: Changing evacuation behaviour to meet densified housing needs for the population | Daniel Nilsson (external link)

This research is a joint venture funded by Fire and Emergency, BRANZ, Building Innovation Partnership (BIP), Halliwell Fire Research, and GHD. The research methodology has been reviewed and approved by the University of Canterbury Human Research Ethics Committee (reference; HREC 2024/68/LR-PS).