Commissioned by the Zuid6 partnership, TU Delft, Argaleo, and MICD have developed an evacuation module that can calculate and visualize evacuation scenarios. The tool has received very positive feedback; both professional journals and national newspapers reported on it in November and December 2025.
The evacuation tool is not an entirely new application, but a smart combination of two existing systems: the fast MARPLE traffic model developed by Rijkswaterstaat and TU Delft, and Argaleo’s Digitwin environment. The latter serves as a “window” into the traffic model.
The strength of the MARPLE-Digitwin combination lies in the fact that the consequences of policy choices and operational decisions—how an evacuation unfolds over time and space— can be calculated quickly and visualized clearly on a three-dimensional map. This enables policymakers, modelers, and emergency services to jointly develop scenarios and literally see the effects of a particular evacuation strategy.
To demonstrate that the tool works and to show how it works, the developers collaborated with the Zeeland Safety Region: could evacuation scenarios for that region be calculated? The results confirmed that the model functions in a technically stable manner and is analytically robust.
Media Attention
The new tool attracted considerable attention from both professionals and the media. It was covered by NM Magazine and Vakblad Crisismanager, as well as by Omroep Zeeland and the national daily newspapers De Telegraaf and AD.
The latter newspaper, among others, spoke with Jeroen Steenbakkers of Argaleo and MICD director Sascha Hoogendoorn. The AD article clearly illustrates how urgently evacuation planning is needed. The fact that modeling can now be done quickly—within minutes—and that the results will be visualized makes scenario development much simpler. As Hoogendoorn puts it in the article: “Fifteen years ago, such a calculation took two days.”
Rollout
Following the tests with the Zeeland Safety Region, the tool will be further developed. Based on feedback, several new functionalities will be added. Above all, the tool will be prepared for use in other regions across the country as well.