Home

Canary Wharf

To advise on evacuation modelling for Canary Wharf

Background

Canary Wharf is one of London’s and the world’s leading business districts, with around 1.5 million sqm of office and retail space, occupying 97 acres on the Isle of Dogs, in the east of the capital. Movement Strategies provides ongoing advice to Canary Wharf Group to plan for the safe and efficient movement of employees, residents and visitors in the event of an emergency. Continuing development and construction work requires safety and resilience planning to be updated at regular intervals.

Location
London

Client
Canary Wharf Group PLC

Year
2003 - Present

WHAT WE DID

Following the events of 9/11, Canary Wharf Group enhanced its resilience plans, and commissioned Movement Strategies to prepare an estate-wide evacuation plan for 150,000
people.

We developed evacuation modelling tools to test and optimise the time taken for tenants to evacuate the estate in a safe manner, and created real-time information and decision-making tools to respond to the many scenarios tested.

We continue to update the plans to reflect the changes in the intervening years and to accommodate the planned expansion of the estate, when the total day time occupancy is forecast to reach 200,000. 

These included bespoke response plans for each tenant, so that the evacuation plan was sufficiently detailed for each organisation, yet coherent across the estate, this ensuring the movement was as efficient and safe as possible.

RESULTS

We consulted stakeholders and developed a ‘playbook’ of evacuation scenarios, providing routing strategies for the whole estate to evacuate safely, alongside metrics on expected dispersal times. The deliverables help Canary Wharf Group plan for emergencies. 

Related case studies:

See all our case studies