Modeling and interactive simulation of measures against infection transmission. (April 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Abadeer, Mina; Magharious, Sameh; Gorlatch, Sergei
• Is Part Of: Simulation. Volume 99:Number 4(2023)
• Page Start: 327
• Page End: 346
• Publication Date: 2023-04
• Subjects: Computer simulation -- mathematical modeling -- multi-agent systems -- infection transmission -- protective measures -- COVID-19 -- SARS-CoV-2 -- infection probability; Computer simulation -- Periodicals; 003.3
• DOI: 10.1177/00375497221133849
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0037-5497

Abstract

In this paper we develop an approach to modeling and simulating the process of infection transmission among individuals and the effectiveness of protective counter-measures. We base our approach on pedestrian dynamics and we implement it as an extension of the Vadere simulation framework. In order to enable a convenient simulation process for a variety of scenarios, we allow the user to interact with the simulated virtual environment (VE) during run time, for example, by dynamically opening/closing doors for room ventilation and moving/stopping agents for re-positioning their locations. We calibrate and evaluate our approach on a real-life case study—simulating COVID-19 infection transmission in two kinds of scenarios: large-scale (such as the city of Münster, Germany) and small-scale (such as the most common indoor environments—classrooms, restaurants, etc.). By using the tunable parameters of our modeling approach, we can simulate and predict the effectiveness of specific anti-COVID protective measures, such as social distancing, wearing masks, self-isolation, schools closing, etc.