The Need for a Verification and Validation Protocol for Evacuation Models

To date, there is no standard Verification and Validation (V&V) protocol for the evaluation of evacuation model predictions. This paper is intended to open a discussion on the main issues associated with the definition of a standard procedure for the V&V of building fire evacuation models. Examples of such issues are discussed, namely:

1. The definition of tests able to investigate the capability of evacuation models of representing emergent behaviours
2. A discussion on the methods employed to study the uncertainty caused by the use of distributions or stochastic variables in evacuation modelling
3. The definition of the acceptance criteria of a standard V&V protocol.