Interdisciplinary Research Project on Effective Crowd Management at UEFA EURO 2024

22 February 2024

Forschungszentrum Jülich, DLR, Eventbande GmbH, and D.LIVE will use scientific computer simulations to analyse and optimize visitor flows at major events as part of the CroMa-PRO project

The future of crowd management: The joint pilot research project CroMa-PRO focuses on the simulation of visitor flows at large-scale venues such as the MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA in Düsseldorf. The aim of the interdisciplinary research project is to sustainably improve visitor flows during major events. This should also help to create an optimized basis for planning with respect to traffic and crowd management for arrival and departure processes at major events. The project will be put into action during the UEFA EURO 2024 football tournament. It will involve simulations of visitor flows on the “last kilometre” between the various modes of transport and the event location.

Exciting synergies within the project team from the event industry and research

CroMa-PRO builds on a long history of research activities conducted by the project participants in the field of event safety and simulation. In Eventbande GmbH and D.LIVE, the project brings together experts in mobility and safety concepts. This expertise is complemented by scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in the field of traffic flow simulation. The interdisciplinary collaboration between the individual project partners helps to create exciting synergies with results that are both empirically sound and tested in practice. “An interdisciplinary project like this is a fantastic opportunity to learn from each other in a practical context, to put familiar processes and measures to the test, and to develop them further,” says Christian Löper, project manager at Eventbande GmbH and CroMa-PRO network coordinator.

Direct practical application in Düsseldorf during UEFA EURO 2024

Based on the simulation, certain initial scenarios will be observed and analysed, such as specific bottlenecks in the routes to parking spaces, at the venue itself, or at individual entrances, depending on the weather and traffic situation. Individual packages of measures will be coordinated with the stakeholders in the UEFA EURO 2024 host city.

Project with prospects

“The aim of the project is to use a tool that can advise event planning stakeholders and improve their ability to take action. CroMa-PRO takes a zoomed-out approach compared to previous research projects,” says Hauke Schmidt, Executive Director Safety Management at D.LIVE. “The project results obtained should be transferable to other stadiums and events. This enables the project to identify correlations between measures in the areas of mobility and safety and to respond quickly to interactions and undesirable side effects,” Schmidt adds.

To ensure coordinated inter-organizational cooperation, the simulated safety-relevant scenarios and measures will be evaluated in workshops between the project participants dedicated to the pre-planning of events, thus improving the ability of users to act.

“The football matches at UEFA EURO 2024 are a scientifically exciting use case. In the past, the focus was primarily on analysing evacuation scenarios. Now the focus is increasingly on simulating movement patterns upon arrival and linking pedestrian dynamics to public transport,” explains Jette Schumann from Forschungszentrum Jülich. “This overarching view of the traffic system and pedestrian flows in the simulation allows us to provide more targeted analyses of potential bottlenecks, conflicts, or risk areas when traveling to and from major events,” adds Ronald Nippold from DLR.

Contact

Dr. Jette Schumann

• Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS)
• Civil Safety Research (IAS-7)

Building 09.7 /
Room 216

+49 2461/61-96553

E-Mail

Media contact

Tobias Schlößer

Pressereferent

Building 15.3 /
Room R 3028a

+49 2461/61-4771

E-Mail

Further information

Project

CroMa-PRO

Within the CroMa-PRO project, scientifically based simulation applications are used to analyse large-scale interactions between urban traffic and the flow of people travelling to and from major events. (More in German)

Press Release

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Institute for Advanced Simulation

Civil Safety Research

The institute section Civil Safety Research covers the scientific fields of pedestrian and fire dynamics. With a focus on basic research, our methods include experiments, modelling and computer-based simulations. Our work is closely linked to the following chairs at the University of Wuppertal.