Multi-objective optimization and heuristic based solutions for evacuation modeling

•We presented a framework to solve the transit network design problem for evacuation. We present two approaches: multi-objective optimization and heuristic-based optimization.•We implemented a bus-based simulator to simulate our solution set of routes.•We showed the usability of our frameworks by performing a case study on Halifax city. This paper presents efficient approaches to evacuation modeling through solving the underlying transit network design problem. Given the road network of an area, our goal here is to compute a set of routes to evacuate all residents (i.e., evacuees) within the earliest possible time. The paper presents two different approaches, namely, a multi-objective optimization based approach and a heuristics-based approach. The work has also implemented a bus-based simulator to simulate the solutions (i.e., generated routeset). Finally, the work has performed a case study on the city of Halifax to show the efficacy of our framework where our multi-objective optimization based solution (Heuristics-based solution) can evacuate all evacuees within six (nine) hrs. Our proposed framework and the case study show the application of an algorithmic approach to the transit network design problem to real world problem. The proposed framework has the flexibility to improve/customize based on the choices of decision-makers and transportation engineers.