Cariño, J M N and Garciano, L E O (2020) Proposed evacuation safety index (ESI) for school buildings. International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, 11(3), pp. 309-328. ISSN 1759-5916
Abstract
Purpose: Schools are vulnerable to strong-magnitude earthquakes. The purpose of this study is to develop a seismic evacuation safety index (ESI) to assess school’s safety as a function of the following parameters: means of egress, disaster preparedness and disaster response. Moreover, the study aims to simulate and study an evacuation model to estimate evacuation time for a realistic understanding of the evacuation processes. Design/methodology/approach: The paper used a semi-quantitative risk assessment method in developing the ESI. This was used to evaluate schools and classify them according to their level of evacuation safety. To estimate the evacuation time of each school, cellular automata theory and static floor field were used. Findings: The paper provides primary school stakeholders important parameters that they should consider in preparing pre-disaster plans to ensure safe evacuation of school children. Research limitations/implications: ESI focuses only on the means of egress, disaster preparedness and disaster response as the contributing factors. The structural conditions of each school building and assessment of non-structural elements are not considered. Practical implications: The ESI and the evacuation model can be used as a basis for evacuation planning and decision-making. This can help building owners and administrators in strengthening their disaster risk management plan by enforcing mitigating measures. Originality/value: ESI is an original idea and fills the gap regarding the safe evacuation of school children especially during a major seismic event.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | disaster preparedness; disaster response; disaster risk reduction and management; evacuation safety |
| Index terms: | children, owner, disaster response, estimate, evacuation time, mitigating measure, risk assessment, earthquake, disaster risk, disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction, safe evacuation, strengthening, decision-making, methodology, school building |
| Subjects: | demography, decision analysis, sociology, emergency and crisis management, environmental hazards, structural engineering, safety engineering, research methods, financial risk, financial and cost management, construction type |
| Topics: | Urban Studies, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Health and Safety, Cost Management, Sustainability, Construction Technology, Risk Management, Stakeholder Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here