Jabal Omar is located to the West of Al Haram with a projected area of around 230,000 square metres. The development will be able to accommodate some 150,000 worshippers when complete, all of whom will seek to pray in Al Haram or in the extensive prayer areas in Jabal Omar.

Scientific estimates of crowd numbers seeking to pray in Al Haram or return to the site were produced. Further analysis of the possible crowd movements through crowd modelling enabled a detailed understanding of the limits to the site design.

Improvements to the pedestrian concept design were proposed and additional concepts for crowd management were outlined.

We advised on capacity and safety issues of pedestrian flow for the planning application of the development. This involved detailed modelling and simulation techniques, such as network modelling and agent-based flow modelling to determine safe parameters and advise on the current design proposal. Crowd management advice was provided and design optimisations were incorporated.