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September 26, 2014

Researchers use simulations to study interdependencies between people and the built environment.

Researchers create models and simulations to study interdependencies between the built environment and urban movement under everyday and crisis scenarios.

The image shows a section of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, following a simulated earthquake. Potential safe movement paths around debris are shown as multi-color ribbons, calculated from a massively interactive agent-based model of likely behavior in the hour after the event. The height of the ribbons indicates the potential speed of movement possible; color denotes the buildings from which the trips might originate.

Credit: Paul M. Torrens, Geography and UMIACS, University of Maryland, College Park


Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

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