Abstract
The safety of pilgrims is one the most important issues faced by authorities to make sure that Hajj rituals are carried out in the best condition. Management of pilgrims' crowd movement as well as their transportation within the Holy places during Hajj days are two main aspects to take into consideration to ensure their safety. The Hajj authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia develop each year a set of schedules and evaluate them before their final adoption and implementation to ensure the safety and efficiency of pilgrims' movement. In order to do this, the study aims at developing a powerful Spatial Data Infrastructure that intends to provide useful and relevant spatial information and spatial analysis to support decision making for pilgrims' crowd management. The study also aims at performing realistic simulations of the proposed plans and schedules to assess their safety and efficiency. This study proposed an approach that combines Geographic Information Systems and Agent Based Modeling for simulation of pilgrims' movement during Hajj days. Five scheduling plans for the movement of pilgrims are simulated: 3 plans for moving from camps entrances to gathering points and 2 plans for moving from camps entrances to Jamarat gates. The simulation results allow hajj authorities to choose the appropriate scheduling plans to adopt in terms of safety and effectiveness based on the density of pilgrims per meter square and the time required to reach the holy places in Makkah.