Modelling human behaviour in underground emergency situations

This presentation will discuss current developments in evacuation modelling and its role in and application to underground applications

Extended model of pedestrian escalator behaviour based on data collected within a Chinese underground station

This paper presents data relating to pedestrian escalator behaviour collected in an underground station in Shanghai, China. While data was not collected under emergency or simulated emergency conditions, it is argued that the data collected under rush-hour conditions - where commuters are under time pressures to get to work on time - may be used to approximate emergency evacuation conditions - where commuters are also under time pressures to exit the building as quickly as possible. Data pertaining to escalator/stair choice, proportion of walkers to riders, walker speeds and side usage are presented. The collected data is used to refine the buildingEXODUS escalator model allowing the agents to select whether to use an escalator or neighbouring parallel stair based on congestion conditiions at the base of the stair/escalator and expected travel times. The new model, together with the collected data, is used to simulate a series of hypothetical evacuation scenarios to demonstrate the impact of escalators on evacuation performance.

Towards Extracting Absolute Roughness From Underground Mine Drift Profile Data

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a technique to utilize underground mine drift profile data for estimating absolute roughness of an underground mine drift in order to implement the Darcy-Weisbach equation for mine ventilation calculations. This technique could provide mine ventilation engineers with more accurate information upon which they might base their ventilation systems designs. This paper presents preliminary work suggesting that it is possible to estimate the absolute roughness of drift-like tunnels by analyzing profile data (e.g., collected using a scanning laser rangefinder). The absolute roughness is then used to estimate the friction factor employed in the Darcy-Weisbach equation. The presented technique is based on an analysis of the spectral characteristics of profile ranges. Simulations based on real mine data are provided to illustrate the potential viability of this method. It is shown that mining drift roughness profiles appear similar to Gaussian profiles

Water Treatment Goes Underground

This is an invited paper to 'The Chemical Engineer' published by IChemE (UK). The paper summarises the technology on arsenic removal from groundwater, which has been recognised by prestigious Ambani Prize of IChemE (UK).

Compost city: underground music, collapsoscapes and urban regeneration

This paper looks at the recent history of Hulme, Manchester, which during the 1980s was home to many of the most successful bands of the post-punk era. This flourishing of underground music was not planned, however. It emerged, through a complex network of urban forces, some physical, some social. The paper develops the concept of the ‘compost city’ a laissez-faire approach to the management of urban culture, which is oppositional to the current vogue for more hands-on cultural industries management.

Review of: Whitehouse, R. 1993 Underground Religion: cult and culture in prehistoric Italy. Accordia Specialist Studies on Italy 1. London, University of London.

Malone , C., . Antiquity, 1993. 67(256): p. 686-7.

Environmental Aspects of Underground Construction and Exploration of Underground Structure – State of the Art

An underground work (such as a tunnel or a cavern) has many, well known, environmental qualities such as: no physical barriers crossing the land, less maintenance costs than an analogous surface structure, less expenses for heating and conditioning; a localized emission of noise, gas, dust during operation and, finally, a better protection against seismic actions.
It cannot be forgotten, anyway, that some negative environmental features are present such as, for example, : perturbation, pollution and drainage of the groundwater; settlements; disposal of waste rock.
In the paper the above mentioned concepts are discussed and analysed to give a global overview of all this aspects.

Right-Wing Violence in Germany: Assessing the Objectives, Personalities and Terror Trail of the National Socialist Underground and the State's Response to It

In the last five years the forces of organised right-wing extremism have made electoral advances across many states in contemporary Europe. Germany has not been immune and the extreme right party, the National Democratic Party of Germany won its first seat in the European Parliament since 1989. The recent successes of the extreme right pose issues for European society about tolerance and immigration policy, but this scene has also been associated with an upsurge in racially motivated political violence and acts of right-wing terrorism. Much of this violence is perpetrated by small neo-Nazi styled groups. This paper looks at the most notorious and recent of such groups to emerge in Germany, the National Socialist Underground. The paper explores the origins and personalities behind this terror cell, provides derails of its criminal activities and murder spree, and questions why it took so long for the authorities to identify the NSU.