Modeling crowd flow during stadium ingress under alternative access protocols: San Mamés as a case study

[EN]Mass gatherings at sporting events pose critical risk for crowd safety, especially in venues with limited history of hosting high-demand events or insufficient data to inform evidence-based interventions. Ahead of the UEFA Europa League (UEL) Final 2024–2025, San Mamés Stadium implemented staged...

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Autores: García Rodríguez, Ander, Guerrero Borges, Bruno Valdemar, Hernández Delfin, Dariel, Lee, Dae-Jin, Ellero, Marco
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universidad del País Vasco
Repositorio:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:addi________::61a45c3a950fee916d5599daca19d27e
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/79011
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:pedrestrian dynamics
crowd management
crowd safety
social force model
numerical simulation
human safety
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spelling Modeling crowd flow during stadium ingress under alternative access protocols: San Mamés as a case studyGarcía Rodríguez, AnderGuerrero Borges, Bruno ValdemarHernández Delfin, DarielLee, Dae-JinEllero, Marcopedrestrian dynamicscrowd managementcrowd safetysocial force modelnumerical simulationhuman safety[EN]Mass gatherings at sporting events pose critical risk for crowd safety, especially in venues with limited history of hosting high-demand events or insufficient data to inform evidence-based interventions. Ahead of the UEFA Europa League (UEL) Final 2024–2025, San Mamés Stadium implemented staged access protocols across league matches. These real-world experiences provide a timely case study on crowd management strategies and operational planning in urban environments. This work presents a simulation-based study of the pedestrian ingress dynamics during fan entry to the stadium under high-attendance settings. The agent-based modeling framework integrates a Social Force Model that considers the pedestrian’s limited visual range, queuing behavior, and where path-finding is computed from the numerical solution of the Laplace equation. Using empirical data of the geometrical constraints of the stadium and its surrounding areas and timestamped turnstile access records from pre-final league matches, the model reproduces the pedestrian flow under every access protocol implemented during the tournament. Quantitative analysis of ingress efficiency, access rates, and pedestrian flow patterns reveals specific stadium-adjacent zones susceptible to undesired counterflow and overcrowding. Simulations indicate that the suggested access guidelines can streamline crowd movement and lower density levels by roughly 20%, while delaying individual screening at the fenced security perimeter by 2.5 s can decrease the maximum average local density by nearly 80%. These findings emphasize the role of computational modeling as a decision-support tool, allowing the evaluation of alternative crowd management strategies before their implementation in real-world events.Elservier202620262026info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10810/79011reponame:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigacióninstname:Universidad del País VascoIngléshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569190X26000286info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/© 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY licenseoai:dnet:addi________::61a45c3a950fee916d5599daca19d27e2026-06-18T09:23:17Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Modeling crowd flow during stadium ingress under alternative access protocols: San Mamés as a case study
title Modeling crowd flow during stadium ingress under alternative access protocols: San Mamés as a case study
spellingShingle Modeling crowd flow during stadium ingress under alternative access protocols: San Mamés as a case study
García Rodríguez, Ander
pedrestrian dynamics
crowd management
crowd safety
social force model
numerical simulation
human safety
title_short Modeling crowd flow during stadium ingress under alternative access protocols: San Mamés as a case study
title_full Modeling crowd flow during stadium ingress under alternative access protocols: San Mamés as a case study
title_fullStr Modeling crowd flow during stadium ingress under alternative access protocols: San Mamés as a case study
title_full_unstemmed Modeling crowd flow during stadium ingress under alternative access protocols: San Mamés as a case study
title_sort Modeling crowd flow during stadium ingress under alternative access protocols: San Mamés as a case study
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv García Rodríguez, Ander
Guerrero Borges, Bruno Valdemar
Hernández Delfin, Dariel
Lee, Dae-Jin
Ellero, Marco
author García Rodríguez, Ander
author_facet García Rodríguez, Ander
Guerrero Borges, Bruno Valdemar
Hernández Delfin, Dariel
Lee, Dae-Jin
Ellero, Marco
author_role author
author2 Guerrero Borges, Bruno Valdemar
Hernández Delfin, Dariel
Lee, Dae-Jin
Ellero, Marco
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv pedrestrian dynamics
crowd management
crowd safety
social force model
numerical simulation
human safety
topic pedrestrian dynamics
crowd management
crowd safety
social force model
numerical simulation
human safety
description [EN]Mass gatherings at sporting events pose critical risk for crowd safety, especially in venues with limited history of hosting high-demand events or insufficient data to inform evidence-based interventions. Ahead of the UEFA Europa League (UEL) Final 2024–2025, San Mamés Stadium implemented staged access protocols across league matches. These real-world experiences provide a timely case study on crowd management strategies and operational planning in urban environments. This work presents a simulation-based study of the pedestrian ingress dynamics during fan entry to the stadium under high-attendance settings. The agent-based modeling framework integrates a Social Force Model that considers the pedestrian’s limited visual range, queuing behavior, and where path-finding is computed from the numerical solution of the Laplace equation. Using empirical data of the geometrical constraints of the stadium and its surrounding areas and timestamped turnstile access records from pre-final league matches, the model reproduces the pedestrian flow under every access protocol implemented during the tournament. Quantitative analysis of ingress efficiency, access rates, and pedestrian flow patterns reveals specific stadium-adjacent zones susceptible to undesired counterflow and overcrowding. Simulations indicate that the suggested access guidelines can streamline crowd movement and lower density levels by roughly 20%, while delaying individual screening at the fenced security perimeter by 2.5 s can decrease the maximum average local density by nearly 80%. These findings emphasize the role of computational modeling as a decision-support tool, allowing the evaluation of alternative crowd management strategies before their implementation in real-world events.
publishDate 2026
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2026
2026
2026
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10810/79011
url http://hdl.handle.net/10810/79011
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569190X26000286
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elservier
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elservier
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
instname:Universidad del País Vasco
instname_str Universidad del País Vasco
reponame_str Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
collection Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
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repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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