ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the current social scientific findings on evacuation studies by focusing on explaining the evacuation planning process for large-scale environmental hazards. The Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) is used to illustrate local residents’ protective action decision making. This chapter also addresses the issues of risk area identification, evacuation analysis, traffic management strategies, and re-entry planning by summarizing the existing evacuation literature from a variety of environmental hazards such as hurricanes, floods, wildfires, tsunamis, and hazardous materials releases. These research findings identify the considerations that need to be addressed when developing community evacuation plans in order to minimize social disruptions, economic cost, and psychological distress.
