Risk management: the effect of perceived safety on users behaviour in crowded large space buildings

In crowded large space buildings, safety is one of the most important concerns for Facilities Managers. Poor health and safety risk management in buildings such as sports stadiums, concert halls, and religious centres have resulted in crowd disasters that can be traced back to the behaviour of the users in various venues across the world. Within the built environment, safety has been classified into two main parts: objective safety (normative and substantive) and subjective safety (perceived). In practice, a lot of emphasis has been given to objective safety, but research has shown that subjective safety is equally important and cannot be overlooked. Therefore, this thesis focuses on subjective safety and theorises that a decline in perceived safety will have an influence on the user behaviour in crowded large space buildings, which ultimately could result in crowd disaster. The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between perceived safety and user behaviour in crowded large space buildings to enhance safety during an event. This thesis has adopted two theoretical frameworks (FIST and Six dimensions and loci of crowd disaster) and has developed a comprehensive conceptual model (Subjective ... (continues)