NFPA Journal - July/August 2020 - 58

The problem of crowds does not lie with the crowd
itself, but rather in our incomplete understanding
of its anticipated behavior and limitations
in our ability to quickly adapt to that behavior.

ARGE CROWDS CAN PRESENT
some of the most complex challenges
faced by safety officials, crowd managers, and facility owners. Crowd
management has been a long-standing
life safety concern for both fire-related
and non-fire emergencies in an array
of venues, including sports facilities,
concert halls, clubs, malls, and fairgrounds. Crowd dynamics can lead to trampling incidents,
crowd crushes, and violence, and when these events combine with insufficient means of egress and ineffective crowd
management, injuries and deaths can occur, sometimes in
staggering numbers.
But what if crowd managers and authorities having
jurisdiction (AHJs) could evaluate crowd dynamics with a
real-time crowd monitoring system? What if they could use
detailed, data-informed situational awareness to identify
rapid changes in crowd density, movement, and other behaviors and neutralize potentially dangerous situations?
Those are the aims of an ongoing Fire Protection Research
Foundation (FPRF) project on data-informed crowd management. Launched last year in collaboration with the
NFPA Data and Analytics Group, the goal of the project is to
develop a low-cost, open-source, proof-of-concept tool that
can be used by safety officials to improve their real-time
situational awareness of crowds. Funded by the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the crowd
density tool will be capable of collecting, analyzing, visualizing, and reporting crowd data extracted from still images
and video feeds. It is not intended to replace safety officials;
instead, the tool can be used as part of the event planning
process, and during live events to support crowd managers
as they make timely, informed decisions.
As a research project manager at the FPRF, part of my role
is to listen and respond to the needs of our stakeholders. As
one of the lead researchers on this project, it is exciting to

participate in a cutting-edge effort that is a direct response
to requests from safety officials. This research combines
the latest advancements in data science with commercial
off-the-shelf hardware and open-source software to provide
reasonable and accurate solutions for the crowd-safety community. The tool has the potential to deliver a high-quality
solution that is affordable and easily implemented.
The project is expected to conclude this fall, and we have
developed an initial proof-of-concept version of the tool.
Our next steps will focus on testing the tool on an array of
venues, validating the estimated crowd counts, and evaluating the feasibility of full-scale implementation. In October,
the FPRF expects to release a final
NFPA.ORG/
report and the programming code
CROWDSOURCE
associated with the tool, along
Read more about the
with guidance on how to implecrowd density tool
ment it. The coronavirus pandemic
being developed by
the Fire Protection
has reduced or eliminated crowds
Research Foundation
around the world for the past sevand the NFPA Data
eral months, but they'll return soon
and Analytics Group.
enough-and when they do, safety
officials and facility managers will have an effective new tool
to help them meet the challenge.

The hazards of crowds
The problem of crowds does not lie with the crowd itself, but
rather in our incomplete understanding of its anticipated
behavior and limitations in our ability to quickly adapt to
that behavior.
Many variables go into that behavior, starting with the
venue itself-each one has its own vulnerabilities and
challenges. Similarly, every crowd has its own character,
influenced by internal and external factors such as purpose,
organization (or lack thereof ), and emotional engagement.
Crowd dynamics are influenced by time, space, the information available to people, and the group's collective energy.
The inherent complexity and volatility of these events

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http://www.NFPA.ORG/CROWDSOURCE http://www.NFPA.ORG/CROWDSOURCE

NFPA Journal - July/August 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - July/August 2020