The accurate prediction and analysis of emergencies in Urban Rail Transit Systems (URTS) are essential for the development of effective early warning and prevention mechanisms. This study presents an integrated perception model designed to predict emergencies and analyze their causes based on historical unstructured emergency data. To address issues related to data structuredness and missing values, we employed label encoding and an Elastic Net Regularization-based Generative Adversarial Interpolation Network (ER-GAIN) for data structuring and imputation. Additionally, to mitigate the impact of imbalanced data on the predictive performance of emergencies, we introduced an Adaptive Boosting Ensemble Model (AdaBoost) to forecast the key features of emergencies, including event types and levels. We also utilized Information Gain (IG) to analyze and rank the causes of various significant emergencies. Experimental results indicate that, compared to baseline data imputation models, ER-GAIN improved the prediction accuracy of key emergency features by 3.67% and 3.78%, respectively. Furthermore, AdaBoost enhanced the accuracy by over 4.34% and 3.25% compared to baseline predictive models. Through causation analysis, we identified the critical causes of train operation and fire incidents. The findings of this research will contribute to the establishment of early warning and prevention mechanisms for emergencies in URTS, potentially leading to safer and more reliable URTS operations.
Urban rail transit systememergency predictiongenerative adversarial imputation networkensemble learningcause analysisFundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities2024YJS096National Natural Science Foundation of China624330056227203662173167Introduction
Urban rail transit (URT) is the preferred mode of transportation for urban communities, and its safe and stable operation is an essential reflection of the city’s level of safety management. The operation of the Urban rail transit system (URTS) is in relatively enclosed spaces and often accumulates many passengers within a short period. In such scenarios, emergencies can result in massive casualties and severe consequences [1–3]. Research on the perception methods for emergencies in URTS, in-depth exploration of hidden information in historical emergency data. Forecasting potential events and analyzing associated causes serves as a crucial approach to prevent incidents and enhance system security [4,5].
Urban Rail Transit Emergencies (URTE) data predominantly consist of unstructured narrative texts, such as accident reports, eyewitness descriptions, investigation reports, news reports [6,7]. Current methods for structuring text data include Label Encoding [8], One Hot Encoding [9], and Bag of Words models [10]. Label encoding involves mapping text labels into numerical form, preserving the relationships between sequences to the greatest extent possible.
The low incidence of emergency, incomplete reporting records, and data collection and sharing constraints [11,12] have contributed to the sparse and incomplete characteristics of structured URTE data. Currently, there are three types of interpolation methods for incomplete data [13,14]; the first one is based on statistics and regression ideas, which includes mean value [15], regression model [16,17], principal component analysis (PCA) [18], etc.; the second one is based on machine learning data completion methods, which includes: K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) [19,20], decision tree [21], Bayesian network [22], etc. However, these methods are restricted in handling low-dimensional and simple datasets and face challenges with high-dimensional and complex URTE data, potentially reducing the accuracy of perception models and limiting comprehensive risk identification.
An increasing number of scholars are exploring deep learning methods for interpolating missing data values, forming a third category of approaches. In 2018, Yoon et al. [23] introduced the GAIN network model utilizing generative adversarial networks to fill missing data values. Based on the GAIN network, Sun et al. [24] compared various complementation algorithms such as variational auto-encoder (VAE) with unique heat coding using multiple datasets for different missing mechanisms, and the experiments showed that GAIN performs better in all missing mechanisms. Bernardini et al. [25] proposed a conditional generative adversarial network (ccGAN) data interpolation method in the medical clinical domain for real-world electronic health record data containing multiple records with missing values. In summary, GAIN surpasses traditional methods by accurately capturing the complex distribution of raw data. However, overfitting is prone to occur during the training process.
The prediction of URTE is based on using models to learn the event’s characteristics and predict the critical features of emergencies. There have been studies using traditional machine learning methods such as Decision Trees [26], Support Vector Machines (SVM) [27,28], and logistic regression [29] to predict emergencies, but such methods are only adapted to simple, balanced datasets. The distribution of emergency data in terms of category and level often has an uneven problem [30], which leads to traditional machine learning perception models tending to learn emergency features of a particular category and level. Prediction models are prone to prediction errors in the case of limited samples.
Compared to traditional machine learning methods, Ensemble Learning (EL) methods, which aggregate the results of multiple base classifiers, are gaining significant attention from researchers [31–33]. Meng et al. [34] proposed an EL strategy for accident-type prediction and causation analysis in response to unbalanced railway accident data. Wang et al. [35] used an EL approach with AdaBoost to predict critical indicators such as PM2.5 in the metro environment. This approach aims to enhance air quality management and help prevent cardiopulmonary diseases caused by passengers’ exposure to hazardous air. EL methods offer a robust approach for various predictive tasks, especially in scenarios involving complex and imbalanced datasets. However, right now, this method is hardly used in predicting emergencies in URTS.
The cause analysis of emergencies involves identifying the primary causes that lead to the occurrence of such events, thereby facilitating a clear analysis of the processes underlying emergency situations. In recent years, researchers have employed a variety of methodologies to explore the origins of emergencies. One such approach is model-based, which includes System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) [36] and AcciMap [37]. These methodologies identify potential accident causes by analyzing the interactions and feedback loops within a system. However, the complexity of URTS and the inherent uncertainty of emergencies make modeling within actual URT environments exceedingly challenging. Consequently, data-driven methods [38] have increasingly been utilized to uncover the deep relationships between emergency characteristics and their causes, providing a more objective and quantifiable perspective for causes analysis.
Main contributions of this study are summarized as follows:
Coding schemes for the types and levels of emergencies are built, and label coding is carried out to achieve structured data processing.
This study integrates elastic net regularization to refine the GAIN (ER-GAIN). By leveraging its capability to learn the complex distribution of the original data, the model effectively interpolates missing values within the dataset, thereby enhancing the integrity of emergency data.
To address the imbalance in data related to URTE, we employed the AdaBoost ensemble learning model to predict the key features of these emergencies.
This paper utilizes the IG from data-driven strategies to analyze the causes of emergencies, thereby identifying the key factors that contribute to the occurrence of such events.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 provides a detailed description of the integrated perception model; Section 3 uses actual URTE data for experimental; Section 4 discusses the results. Section 5 concludes and looks forward to the work in this paper.
Methodology
The framework of the URTE integrated perceptual model is shown in Fig. 1. It contains a total of four parts: (1) Structuring of data, (2) Data interpolation based on ER-GAIN, and (3) Emergency prediction method. (4) Cause analysis of emergency.
Framework of integrated perception model for URTE under incomplete data
Structured Method for Emergency Data
Unstructured data obtained from various sources, such as social media and incident reports, provide narrative textual records of the processes and outcomes of URTE. However, Structured Data refers to data stored and organized in a predefined format, whose structure and content follow clear rules and patterns, facilitating efficient processing and analysis by computer programs. This paper employs a label encoding method to process unstructured emergency data, developing a labeling scheme in terms of the cause, type, and level of emergencies.
Causes of Emergencies
The causes or interactions of causes leading to URTE directly reflect system vulnerabilities and insufficient resilience. According to the theory of event causality [39], these emergencies can often be attributed to four key factors: unsafe human behavior, unsafe material conditions, adverse environmental conditions, and managerial deficiencies. Building on this theory, our study further refines the causes of URTE across four dimensions: human, machine, environment, and management. By combining a literature review and expert experience, we identified 19 specific causal factors, detailed in Table 1.
Label coding scheme for the causation of URTE
Causative factors
Specific causes
Coded value
Human
Human error r1
0–1: Likelihood that the cause exists
Unsafe behavior of personnel r2
Weak security awareness among personnel r3
Low business level of employees r4
Poor emergency response capacity r5
Passenger’s destructive behavior r6
Machine
Power supply system failure r7
Station equipment failure r8
Train malfunction r9
Signal system failure r10
Tunnels and lines damaged r11
Security equipment is insufficient r12
Design and construction defects r13
Environment
Natural disasters and severe weather r14
Heavy traffic r15
Foreign object intrusion r16
Management
Untimely maintenance of equipment r17
Inadequate security precautions r18
Inadequate supervision of safety and quality r19
Types of Emergencies
Event types refers to all types of emergencies that may occur during operations, which may have a serious impact on passenger safety, operational order, and facilities and equipment. In this study, the classification of URTE and their corresponding encoding values are detailed in Table 2.
Label coding scheme for event type
Event types
Description of the accident
Coded value
Driving accident
Derailment, rear end collision, collision, suspension, delay, etc.
1
Fire accident
Equipment catching fire and human induced arson, etc.
2
Public safety accident
Passenger disembarkation, overcrowding, violence, etc.
3
Terrorist attack
Poison gas, bombs, etc.
4
Power outage accident
Failure of external and internal power supply units, etc.
5
Flooding accidents
Rainwater or other water into the underground, etc.
6
Natural disaster
Earthquake, wind, lightning, etc.
7
Equipment failure
Screen door failure, lift failure, etc.
8
Construction accident
Construction section collapse, etc.
9
Levels of Emergencies
Event levels refers to the categorization and grading of emergencies based on factors such as their severity, scope of impact, degree of harm, and emergency response needs [40], and the results are shown in Table 3. If the event meets one of the classification conditions, it will be classified as such.
Label coding scheme for levels of URTE
Event levels
Demarcation conditions
Coded value
Duration of interruptions
Personnel casualties
Economic loss
Particularly significant (I)
Interruption ≥ 36 h
Deaths ≥ 30 or serious injuries ≥ 100
Direct economic losses ≥ 100M yuan
1
Significant (II)
24 h ≤ Interruption < 36 h
10 ≤ Deaths < 30 or 50 ≤ serious injuries < 100
50M yuan ≤ Direct economic losses < 100M yuan
2
Larger (III)
6 h ≤ Interruption < 24 h
3 ≤ Deaths < 10 or 10 ≤ serious injuries < 50
10M yuan ≤ Direct economic losses < 50M yuan
3
General (IV)
2 h ≤ Interruption < 6 h
Deaths < 3 or serious injuries < 10
500,000 yuan ≤ Direct economic losses < 10M yuan
4
Minor (V)
Interruption ≤ 2 h
No casualties
Direct economic losses < 500,000 yuan
5
GAIN-Based Data Interpolation Method
The issue of data missingness in URTE is complex, encompassing both random and non-random factors. GAIN is an unsupervised interpolation method, and the core idea is to use a generative adversarial network to simulate and learn the underlying distribution of event data to estimate and interpolate missing data more accurately. However, the traditional GAIN is prone to overfitting during the training process, which results in poor generalization capabilities of the model. Therefore, we propose an improved data imputation method that combines elastic network regularization (ER) and GAIN. The framework is shown in Fig. 2.
The framework of ER-GAIN
ER [41] is a machine learning method that combines L1 and L2 regularization techniques. It aims to perform variable selection and control model complexity by constructing an optimized loss function, thereby effectively preventing the model from overfitting. Specifically, L1 regularization (Lasso) encourages sparsity in the model parameters, which aids in feature selection, while L2 regularization (Ridge) controls the growth of model weights to prevent overfitting. The general form of the elastic net regularization loss function is shown as Eq. (1).
ℒER=ℒori+λ1∑i=1n1|θi|+λ2∑i=1n2(θi)2where, ℒori represents the original loss function, such as mean square error or cross entropy loss. λ1 and λ2 are regularization parameters that control the strength of L1 and L2 regularization, respectively. θi is the weight parameter of the model.
Applying elastic net regularization to GAIN involves reconstructing the loss functions of both the generator and the discriminator. For the generator, the goal is to learn more generalized feature representations while reducing the noise in the generated data. For the discriminator, the aim is to enhance its ability to generalize, thereby improving its capacity to distinguish between real and generated data. The reconstructed loss functions for both components are presented as Eqs. (2) and (3):
ℒER,D=ℒD+λ1∑i=1n1|θi,D|+λ2∑i=1n2(θi,D)2ℒER,G=ℒG+λ1∑i=1n1|θi,G|+λ2∑i=1n2(θi,G)2where, ℒG and ℒD represent the original loss functions of the generator and discriminator in the GAIN algorithm (Appendix A, Eqs. (A3) and (A4)). The terms θi,G and θi,D denote the weight parameters of the ith unit of the generator and discriminator, respectively.
Emergency Prediction Method
Due to the inherent variability in the probability of occurrence of URTE, with certain equipment failure events being more frequent than major disasters, this leads to a significant imbalance in the URTE dataset with respect to event types and severity levels. In order to prevent this imbalance from affecting the performance of the prediction model, Prediction of URTE using AdaBoost [42] (Fig. 3).
Integrated prediction model for URTE
URTE Cause Analysis Method
The causal analysis of URTE aims to identify causes associated with emergency types. IG can serve as an indicator to evaluate the importance of a cause. This indicator is derived by measuring the reduction in uncertainty regarding the type of emergency given a specific cause. The calculation method is presented as Eqs. (4)–(6):
Ig(S,rj)=H(S)−H(S|rj)H(S)=−∑i=1C(pilog2pi)H(S|rj)=∑j=1m|Sj||S|H(Sj)where, H(S) represents the original entropy of the entire dataset, indicating the uncertainty of event types in the absence of any feature. pi denotes the proportion of the ith type within the dataset, and C is the total number of emergency types. H(S|rj) is the conditional entropy for each cause, representing the uncertainty of event types given that cause. S denotes the URTE dataset, while Sj refers to a subset under the condition of cause rj. The variable m specifies the number of causes, and |S| is the total size of the dataset.
Experimental AnalysisURTE Dataset and Structuring
We manually collected text records from the Internet and URTS operational event reports, totaling 496 URTS event records worldwide from 1969 to 2021. After structuring the textual data using label coding, we statistically analyzed the events for key features and missing data, as shown in Fig. 4.
Statistical results of emergencies data. <bold>(a)</bold> Key features; <bold>(b)</bold> Missing of the data
There is a highly uneven distribution of emergency data, with the most significant percentage of emergencies of equipment failure types and minor grades, while the number of events of other types and levels is low, and there is even a situation where no record exists. There are a large number of missing cases in the structured emergency data, especially the percentage of missing causes such as tunnel and line damage r11, insufficient safety equipment r12, foreign object invasion r16, etc., reaches more than 50%, and other causes also have different percentages of missing. To ensure the accuracy of the model, it is necessary to complete the missing data.
Interpolation of Structured Emergencies Data
This section employs the ER-GAIN proposed herein to impute missing values within structured emergency data. The generator and discriminator are trained using the methodology outlined in Appendix A. The training parameters were configured as follows: the training step size was set to 20,000, with λ1 and λ2 assigned the values of 0.05 and 0.5, respectively. The evolution of the loss for both models during the training process is depicted in Fig. 5.
Variation of generator and discriminator losses during the training process
The loss of the generator gradually tends to stabilize during the training process, while the loss of the discriminator still has large fluctuations at the late stage of training. This characteristic shows that the complementary model has good missing data interpolation ability, so the discriminator cannot distinguish the generated data from the actual data well.
Emergencies Prediction and Result AnalysisTuning of Hyperparameters of Predictive Models
The number of weak classifiers and the learning rate significantly affect the prediction performance of AdaBoost. To make the optimal prediction performance of AdaBoost, it is necessary to adjust the number of weak classifiers and the learning rate of the model before training and to find a set of optimal values for the model hyperparameters.
The hyperparameter tuning scheme of grid search is utilized to find the optimal number of weak classifiers and model learning rate in a violently exhaustive manner. In the grid search process, the efficiency of the computational process is fully considered, and the training step size is set to be uniformly 30, the number of weak classifiers ranges from 1 to 30, and the model learning rate ranges from 0.1 to 1. The computational process of the optimal hyperparameter grid search is shown in Fig. 6.
Grid search process for optimal hyperparameters of the prediction model
As the number of weak classifiers increases, the accuracy of event perception shows an upward trend. When the number of weak classifiers reaches a number, the accuracy of the prediction instead shows a decreasing trend. Too small a learning rate will result in the model not being adequately trained, while too large a learning rate will result in the model not being able to converge, which in turn affects the accuracy of the model. According to the grid search results, the highest model accuracy (88.18%) was achieved by choosing 18 for the number of weak classifiers and 0.6 for the learning rate.
Indicators for Model Assessment
To effectively evaluate the performance of the predictive model and other benchmark models, Accuracy, F1-score, Precision, Recall, and AUC (Area Under Curve) are selected to evaluate the model comprehensively, these evaluation indicators are shown in Table 4.
Calculation formula and representation of each assessment indicator
The model’s ability to perceive positive and negative samples
Precision
Precisioni=∑j=1CiNijN(TPijTPij+FPij)
The model’s ability to perceive positive samples
Recall rate
Recalli=∑j=1CiNijN(TPijTPij+FNij)
The ability of the model to check for positive samples
F1-score
F1−scorei=2×Precisioni×RecalliPrecisioni+Recalli
The overall performance of the model
AUC
AUCi=∑j=1CiNijN(∫01ROCij(f)df)
The performance of the model at different thresholds
Comparative Analysis of Experimental Results
The above hyperparameter scheme are used to train the Adaboost. The dataset is divided into the training and test set according to the ratio of 8:2. The prediction results is shown in Fig. 7.
The confusion matrix derived from the predictive outcomes reveals that the model exhibits greater accuracy in predicting event types and levels with larger sample sizes, achieving an accuracy rate of over 85% in most cases. However, for events such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks, which are characterized by a scarcity of samples, the model’s training is insufficient, thereby adversely affecting the accuracy of its predictions for these types of incidents. Different thresholds are set to plot the ROC curves of the perceptual model in terms of both event types and event levels, and the results are shown in Fig. 8.
From the figure, in the prediction of event types, the AUC of the two types of equipment failure and power outage are more than 0.9, and the AUC of other types are above 0.7; in the perception of event level, the AUC of level V is more than 0.9, and the AUC of other types are above 0.75. It proves that the perception model was effectively trained, and the model validation by adding the test set still has a good perception effect, which proves that the model has been balanced.
After verifying the performance of the data-completion model and the prediction model, the commonly used machine learning algorithms are selected as the benchmark perceptual model, and a comprehensive comparative analysis is conducted with different data-completion datasets to verify the superiority of the perceptual model in this paper. The benchmark models include Naive Bayes Classification (NBC) [43], SVM [27], and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) [44], and the data completion methods include MICE, KNN, and ER-GAIN. The comparative results of the performance of the different models in the prediction of event types and levels are shown in Tables 5 and 6.
Prediction performance comparison of different models in event types
Perception model
Interpolation model
Evaluating indicator
Accuracy
Precision
Recall
F1-Score
AUC
NBC [43]
None
0.7489
0.7524
0.7489
0.7533
0.7488
ER-GAIN
0.7665
0.7647
0.7665
0.7594
0.7558
SVM [27]
None
0.7642
0.7547
0.7642
0.7716
0.7581
ER-GAIN
0.7741
0.7615
0.7741
0.7664
0.7767
ANN [44]
None
0.7817
0.7891
0.7817
0.7864
0.7881
ER-GAIN
0.7849
0.7861
0.7849
0.7805
0.7932
AdaBoost [42]
None
0.7916
0.7907
0.7916
0.8011
0.7989
KNN
0.8047
0.7968
0.8047
0.8004
0.8141
MICE
0.7942
0.7903
0.7942
0.7912
0.8171
ER-GAIN (proposed)
0.8283
0.8273
0.8283
0.8278
0.8367
Prediction performance comparison of different models in event levels
Prediction model
Completion model
Evaluating indicator
Accuracy
Precision
Recall
F1-Score
AUC
NBC [43]
None
0.8108
0.8163
0.8108
0.8164
0.7869
ER-GAIN
0.8291
0.8299
0.8291
0.8288
0.798
SVM [27]
None
0.8314
0.8418
0.8314
0.8371
0.8169
ER-GAIN
0.8476
0.8486
0.8476
0.8494
0.8243
ANN [44]
None
0.827
0.837
0.827
0.8336
0.8301
ER-GAIN
0.8463
0.85
0.8463
0.8583
0.845
AdaBoost [42]
None
0.841
0.8473
0.841
0.8414
0.816
KNN
0.8518
0.8661
0.8518
0.8601
0.8397
MICE
0.8496
0.8571
0.8496
0.855
0.8316
ER-GAIN (proposed)
0.8788
0.8814
0.8788
0.8801
0.8704
From the comparison results in the above table, after adopting the data complemented by the ER-GAIN, the performance of each model for the event types and levels is improved. From the comparison results in the above table, after adopting the data complemented by the ER-GAIN, the performance of each model for the event types and levels is improved. The model proposed in this study compared to other models under the same conditions, and it has improved in multiple indicators such as accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, and AUC. For predicting event types, it has increased by 2.36%, 3.05%, 2.36%, 2.67%, and 1.96%, respectively; The prediction of event levels has increased by 2.7%, 1.53%, 2.7%, 2.0%, and 2.54%, respectively. This proves the effectiveness of ER-GAIN for incomplete emergency data, which improves the validity and completeness of the data. In addition, the AdaBoost has a higher percentage of improvement in the perceptual performance of the data complemented using the ER-GAIN compared to the other benchmark models.
Real Scene Testing
Two scenarios (Table 7) are set up to test the trained emergencies perception model to predict the features of emergencies that may occur in that scenario.
Causation of two real scenarios
r1
r2
r3
r4
r5
r6
r7
r8$
r9$
r10
r11
r12
r13
r14
r15
r16
r17
r18
r19
Scene 1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.5
1
0.3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Scene 2
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0.5
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
The prediction results for these two scenarios are shown in Fig. 9.
Prediction results for two scenarios. <bold>(a)</bold> Event type of Scenario 1; <bold>(b)</bold> Event type of Scenario 2; <bold>(c)</bold> Event level of Scenario 1; <bold>(d)</bold> Event level of Scenario 2
A Level II/III Driving/Equipment failure accident is most likely to occur in Scenario 1, and a Level IV/IV Fire/Power failure accident is most likely to occur in Scenario 2. This prediction result is highly compatible with the historical case data and widely recognized by experts in the field. Leveraging the predictive outcomes enables practitioners to conduct thorough accident analysis and implement corresponding remedial measures. For example, by utilizing geographical information such as latitude and longitude, they can identify accident-prone stations or areas. Consequently, more human resources and funding can be allocated to these locations. This allows for enhanced early warning systems, improved risk management strategies, and more effective maintenance of operating trains and tracks. As demonstrated by Singapore’s Intelligent Transport System (ITS) [45], which utilizes real-time traffic information and data analytics to predict traffic events and improve public transportation, such an approach can significantly enhance the safety and efficiency of urban rail transit systems.
URTE Cause Analysis
This section employs the IG method to analyze the key causes of URTE. As shown in Fig. 6, the primary types of Level I and II catastrophic URTE are traffic accidents and fires. The URTE dataset was filtered for these two types, and the IG method was utilized to calculate the importance of each cause. The results are illustrated in Fig. 10.
Ranking of the importance of the causes of driving and fire accidents. <bold>(a)</bold> Driving; <bold>(b)</bold> Fire
The results indicate that significant driving and fire accidents primarily arise from a combination of Human and Machine factors. In driving accidents, Machine factors are relatively more prominent, whereas in fires, human factors have a greater influence. Unsafe human behaviors, human errors, and power system failures are the most critical factors contributing to these accidents. By conducting an in-depth analysis and implementing effective management of these key factors, we can significantly reduce the occurrence of significant driving and fire accidents, thereby safeguarding lives and property.
DiscussionModel Limitations
The data structuring component of our model is intricately tailored to the unique characteristics of the URTS, leveraging the expertise of domain-specific professionals. URTS operates with a distinctive mode, featuring specialized equipment architecture and a specific logic for data generation. This unique setup allows our data structuring approach to precisely extract and integrate the nuanced features of data pertinent to URTS. However, this very specificity poses a challenge when considering the model’s application beyond the URTS domain. The data structuring methodology, rooted in the experience of experts familiar with the intricacies of urban rail transit, is not readily transferable to other fields. This is primarily due to the substantial disparities in data sources, formats, and the embedded business logic that vary significantly across different domains.
To extend the model’s applicability, we can achieve this by the following methods. Firstly, the framework that will be the subject of this research can be modularized and divided into domain-specific rules and directly generalizable algorithms. This modularity allows us to redefine the domain-specific rules. Secondly, for other domains with different data formats, such as GPS data in transport or sensor data in industrial systems. Flexible data preprocessing methods can be developed to enable the conversion of metadata to standardized data. Finally, by collaborating with relevant experts, domain-specific knowledge can be integrated and data coding schemes can be modified to enable the migration of this research to other domains.
Data Limitations
This study has certain limitations in terms of data. When constructing the interannual analysis framework, although the initial integration of rail transit data between 1969 and 2021 was achieved through standardized processing, it did fail to fully incorporate the characteristics of the evolution of the urban rail transit system over time in terms of technological standards, operation modes, etc. due to the differences in statistical calibers and the absence of key indicators in the early historical data. To address the limitations of the data in this regard, we can develop data preprocessing methods based on backward calibration techniques. In the case of passenger flow data, for example, by establishing a baseline equivalence between historical manual statistical passenger flow data and modern automated statistical passenger flow data, and using the overlapping validation period (1995–2005) in which the two data types co-exist to determine the conversion factor, we can then achieve the alignment of the different standard data.
Conclusion
URTS confronts significant operational risks due to the abrupt and unpredictable nature of URTE. The inherent characteristics of these emergencies result in URTE data that are often unstructured, incomplete, and imbalanced. This study, therefore, presents an integrated incident perception model that encompasses data structuring, completion, emergency prediction, and causal analysis. Initially, a tagging encoding scheme was developed through literature synthesis and expert consultation, thereby structuring the unstructured textual URTE data. Subsequently, to address the incompleteness in URTE data and prevent biases in subsequent models, an improved GAIN method with elastic network regularization was proposed, achieving the completion of incomplete data. Furthermore, to counteract the negative impact of class and grade imbalances in URTS data on model predictions, an EL approach was employed to construct an incident prediction model, enriching the decision boundaries of the perception model and enhancing its predictive performance.
To substantiate the efficacy of this study, the proposed integrated perception model underwent rigorous experimental analysis, with various machine learning methods serving as benchmark models for comparison. The results demonstrate that the ER-GAIN data completion method not only optimizes statistical metrics but also enhances the predictive performance across all models. Moreover, the AdaBoost model based on the EL outperforms other benchmark models in predicting emergencies. These findings validate the effectiveness of both the data completion method and the emergency prediction model. A causal analysis was conducted on the two most severe types of accidents: train operations and fires. By IG index, key causes for these accidents were identified, and their causal coupling mechanisms were revealed. This study provides a scientific foundation for the development of targeted safety prevention measures, the refinement of emergency management strategies, and the enhancement of the overall safety performance of URTS.
Future work will focus on several key areas to further enhance the safety and efficiency of URTS. Firstly, expanding the dataset to include diverse scenarios and emerging risk factors will improve model robustness and adaptability. Additionally, integrating real-time data feeds into the incident prediction model could facilitate proactive management and quicker response times.
The authors would like to thank the editors and reviewers for their valuable work.
Funding Statement
This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant number 2024YJS096), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 62433005, 62272036, 62173167).
Author Contributions
Liang Mu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Writing—original draft. Yurui Kang: Writing—review & editing. Zixu Yan: Data curation, Visualization. Guangyu Zhu: Supervision and review. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Availability of Data and Materials
The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.27021613.v1.
Ethics Approval
Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest to report regarding the present study.
The GAIN interpolation process for burst incomplete data is as follows:
Suppose X is the original data matrix, where some of the data (for example xij) are missing values. Define M as a binary mask matrix of the same size as X, which is used to indicate whether a certain data is missing or not: if xij is missing data, then mij=0; otherwise, mij=1; meanwhile, define Z as a random noise matrix of the same size as X, which is used to assist the generator in generating interpolated data; and blurring the binary mask matrix M to generate the cueing matrix H. Specifically, a 1 (which indicates that the data is intact) in M has a certain probability is set to 0.5, while a 0 in M (indicating that the data is missing) likewise has a certain probability of being set to 0.5.
The Generator tries to estimate the values of the missing data based on the original data matrix X, the mask matrix M, and the random noise matrix Z and outputs the complete data matrix X^ as shown in the following equation:
X^=G(X,Z,M)G stands for the generator function, which is a fully connected multilayer feed-forward neural network used to learn the distribution of the original data and generate missing values. The generator’s hidden layer usually uses the ReLU (Rectified Linear Unit) activation function, and its output layer usually uses the Softmax activation function.
The discriminator receives the output X^ of the generator, and the cue matrix H as input and tries to determine whether each value in the data matrix is actual data or filler data generated by the generator and calculates the probability that each value is actual data as shown in the following equation:
Pobs=D(X^,H)D stands for the discriminator function, a fully connected multilayer feedforward neural network that distinguishes actual data from generator-generated artificial data. The hidden layer of the discriminator usually uses the ReLU activation function, and its output layer usually uses the Sigmoid activation function.
In GAIN, two loss functions train the Generator and Discriminator, respectively. In this case, the loss functions for the Discriminator and Generator are LD and LG, respectively, as shown in the following equation:
LD=−E[M⋅ln(D(X^,H))+(1−M)⋅ln(1−D(X^,H))]LG=−E[(1−M)⋅ln(D(X^,H))]
The objective function of GAIN is:
minGmaxDV(D,G)=E[M⋅ln(D(X^,H))+(1−M)⋅ln(1−D(X^,H))]
In the training process of GAIN, the objective function contains the mathematical expectation E. The objective of G is to minimize the function, while the objective of D is to maximize the function. Through adversarial training, the two models gradually reach a Nash equilibrium, at which point the D cannot accurately identify whether the input data is real data or artificially interpolated data generated by the G.
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