The Integrated Framework For Emergency Shelter Planning For Multi-Hazard Risks

The acceleration of urbanization in developing countries,accompanied by the growing concentration of urban populations and economies has increased the potential destruction risks of disasters including earthquakes,floods,technological accidents etc.There will be substantial damage and loss of life,especially when disasters happen befall metropolises with dense populations.Emergency shelters are vital infrastructures in cities,providing safe space for emergency evacuation and temporary shelters during and after the disasters.Thus,forming a sound and reasonable urban emergency shelter planning has become a significant indicator to assess the ability of a city to deal with disasters in emergency.Planning and construction of urban emergency shelters in China are already way.However,for a long time,the uncontrolled planning,the repeated construction,insufficient services and facilities for emergency have increased the devastation and loss in most cases when disasters happen.Since cities often suffering from more than one disaster,shelters planned for single-disaster still lack of security.The principles of emergency shelter planning,’rational planning,long-term consideration,integrated utilization and local adjustment’,indicate that a city requires integrated emergency shelter planning in order to face multi-hazard risks.However,there are still few investigations find out solutions in terms of optimal locations and scales of shelters for multiple disasters.Therefore,in order to improve the planning framework for urban disaster prevention,this research aims at the integrated emergency shelter planning for multi-hazard risks,studies the theoretical literature and planning methods,proposes corresponding technical roadmap for shelter planning and selection.These findings are applied to earthquake and flood shelter planning in the city of Changshu,China,to make more scientific and rational strategies than planning results under traditional methods.This research mainly proposes the following 3 aspects.(1)The planning framework for integrated emergency shelter for multi-hazard risks.As awareness of disaster prevention rises in urban planning,studies of integrated emergency shelter planning becomes increasingly important.The framework proposed in this research,extends the traditional single-risk evaluation to integrated consideration of multi-hazard risks for optimal shelter planning.(2)Systemic planning method and technical roadmap of integrated emergency shelter for multi-hazard risks.In order to improve the efficiency of each emergency shelter,shelter planning requires comprehensive consideration of different results and responses of different disasters.This research aims to figure out the optimal location and size of different emergency shelters in the city,by evaluating their safety,capacity and accessibility indicators through geographic information system(GIS)network analysis.Based on the investigation of evacuation behaviours,this paper then concludes the technical roadmap for emergency shelter planning,which starts from accessible shelters,to safe and capable post-disaster emergency shelters,and finally towards central integrated emergency shelters.(3)The location model for integrated emergency shelters.To optimize the construction inputs in shelter construction is one of the objectives to realize comprehensive disaster prevention.This research,based on multi-hazard quantitative evaluation on safety,accessibility and capacity,proposes 2 emergency shelter location models,aiming at optimal total size and optimal quantity respectively,and find out solutions using the C programming.According to the optimal shelter planning in the location model,the predicted cost is 30%lower than the cost according to traditional shelter planning.This model,therefore,fills the gap in the current urban shelter planning practice facing the multi-hazard risks,improves the efficiency in planning the post-emergency shelters.The research findings will not only guarantee the effective and safe prevention from disasters,but also contribute to intensive urban land use and lower budget on shelter construction.