The current trend for the new cruise ships is toward giant constructions having a degree of more and more
enhanced complexity, along with an increased number of passengers and crew members.
The Regulations in force concerning safety matters ("Safe Return to Port") are mainly addressed in
increasing the intrinsic survival capability of the ship in event of fire or flooding below a predefined
threshold. When the casualty threshold is exceeded an orderly evacuation and abandonment of the ship
shall be guaranteed. Lessons learnt by the grounding of the "Costa Concordia" have shown that only a
proper planning of the evacuation is the basic premise to ensure a safe abandonment of the ship.
Nowadays, the evacuation analysis is imposed only for ro-ro passenger ships. Meanwhile, the IMO has
decided some amendments to both SOLAS and FSS Code in order to make mandatory the evacuation
analysis also for new passenger ships, starting from February 2016. Innovative tools for the advanced
evacuation analysis, which take into account the different human factors affecting the movement of a
crowd in great agitation, are presented. A thorough analysis for a passenger ship is carried out, and the
performance standard, which expresses the capability of the ship in terms of time necessary for its
evacuation and abandonment, is checked.
