Project - Canary Wharf

(updated  31st August 2007)

Keywords: simulating people, simulating crowds, simulating crowd dynamics, workshops

Korus - Multi-Site Evacuation tools developed by Crowd Dynamics and deployed at the UK Financial District in Canary Wharf.

Recent terrorist attacks show that crowds are a target. Since 9/11 Crowd Dynamics has deployed 50,000 copies of its software (evacuation awareness - using Myriad analysis) to create better and more resilient emergency response and evacuation plans. Crucially the ability to implement these is ensured by innovative analysis and communication systems and training tools for employees or visitors. These techniques can be applied to any building or place where people gather at ANY SCALE from buildings through to events, transport stations, business districts and even cities, and the tools are in use right now (e.g., Canary Wharf, UK police forces, New Year Event Planning, Jamarat Bridge design analysis).

Crowd Dynamics - Co-ordinates the multi-site evacuation strategy.

"Canary Wharf is one of Europe's most vibrant, dynamic business districts and prides itself on the quality of environment and service available to its tenants. CWG contacted Crowd Dynamics to assist us in evaluating our public areas for crowd control in a wide range of situations. Crowd Dynamics has an international reputation for developing mathematical models and solutions for various public events. In this case, we wanted a tool to provide a common basis for occupants of the Canary Wharf estate to develop compatible responses to various security and safety related incidents. While the Canary Wharf estate currently has 60,000 staff employed in the development, a robust tool capable of dealing with crowds over 100,000 has been developed in conjunction with our major business tenants. We believe this innovative approach is another first for Canary Wharf and Crowd Dynamics." Anthony Partington (Canary Wharf Managing Director)

We also participate in a workshop for the Manchester Sports City in mid-2003 and are running workshops for large scale evacuation planning and strategies around the world.

Wed, 25 October Cities 'unprepared for disaster'

None of the UK's major cities is fully ready to deal with a major disaster or a terrorist attack on the scale of the 7 July bombings, a survey has claimed. The Reader's Digest looked at emergency planning in 10 cities and concluded that Liverpool was the least-prepared. The city was given a "readiness score" of 55% - its ambulance response times and police force being criticised. Birmingham was found to be the most ready (79%), with London on 70% and Leeds, Manchester and Bradford on 61%. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sheffield and Cardiff each received a readiness score of 58%. Inadequate information Katherine Walker, of Readers Digest, said things had improved since the 7 July London bombings, but several cities would struggle to cope in the aftermath of a disaster. "Not one of the 10 provides adequate information on evacuation for the elderly and disabled, who are uniquely vulnerable in any crisis," she said. The survey used 11 indicators to assess how prepared the cities were to deal with a major natural disaster, terrorist attack, industrial accident or pandemic. It found that emergency planning in all the cities fell down in at least one respect. 'Crude and simplistic' Liverpool came in for particular criticism, with the survey saying communications systems used by emergency services in the city were incompatible. As a result, the report's authors claimed police, firefighters and paramedics would struggle to talk to one another in a crisis. And they said Liverpool's emergency evacuation plan was not clearly explained on the city's website. But the Merseyside authorities rejected the survey's findings, labelling them "superficial and inaccurate". In a statement, the Merseyside emergency services said: "Emergency planning is much broader than the crude and over-simplistic measurements contained in this report." The survey "in no way reflects the ability of a multi-agency response to deal with a disaster or large-scale emergency", the statement said. Birmingham scored top marks in five of the 11 indicators. London - identified as the UK's number one terrorist target - scored poorly on police capacity to cope with 999 calls and a shortage of acute hospital beds.