Levy Walk Models of Survivor Movement In Disaster Areas With Barriers

Disasters are catastrophic events that occur unexpectedly in a random manner. It is important that when a disaster occurs, the victims in the disaster area are rescued quickly to avoid massive casualties. Disaster areas may leave victims bereft of food, water, shelter and medical help. The goal of the work outlined in this paper is to study the movement of survivors towards rescue devices when barriers are involved. Barriers are obstacles that prevent both survivors and crewmembers from moving freely in a disaster area thereby slowing down rescue operations. It would therefore be necessary to study movements of survivors with barriers included in the simulations so as to produce more realistic results to be used when rescuing survivors in disaster areas.