Efficacy of prompt evacuation and route selection for tsunamis considering building collapse: A case study of the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake

Focusing on tsunami evacuation resilience under compound disaster conditions, this study simulates tsunami evacuation behavior in the Ukai and Kasugano districts of Suzu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, during the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake. An agent-based model, coupled with a tsunami inundation simulator, quantifies the increased risk from delayed evacuation and the impact of road blockages caused by collapsed buildings on evacuation times and tsunami encounter rates.

The results show that building collapses induced evacuation delays, increasing the encounter rate with tsunamis by up to 8.1%. However, this risk was significantly mitigated when evacuation began within 1100 s after the earthquake, even in the presence of building collapses. Optimized route selection further reduced the encounter rate by up to 13.5%. These findings highlight that prompt evacuation and hazard-aware route selection are essential for minimizing life-threatening exposure, while seismic retrofitting fundamentally reduces physical risk. Strengthening community-wide resilience, therefore, requires a dual approach that integrates behavioral and structural countermeasures, providing crucial insights for enhancing regional disaster preparedness.