Evaluation Index System for Disaster Prevention Signs in Urban Shelters in China

ISSN: 1738-7167

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7731/KIFSE.2016.30.1.081

Evaluation Index System for Disaster Prevention Signs in Urban Shelters in China

Song Chen · Zhang Jingxing* · Tae-Hwan Kim** ^†

Beihang University

*University of Science and Technology Beijing

**Department of Security Service, University of Yongin

(Received January 4, 2016; Revised February 11, 2016; Accepted February 12, 2016) ABSTRACT

Reasonable disaster prevention signs play an important role in guiding evacuation. Through the field investigation on disaster prevention signs in shelters and surrounding areas in Beijing, some problems were found in the using of sign sys- tem. Based on the principle of integrated design, evacuation and rescue requirements, it is necesssary to make further study on aspects such as, design of function, systematic consideration, humanization design, as well as the international- ization using. This paper presents an evaluation index system for disaster prevention signs. Such a system is very import- ant for strengthening the independent guiding function of sign systems and improving evacuation efficiency. An effective connection could be realized between the internal environment of buildings, evacuation routes, and emergencey shelters.

Keywords : Urban shelter, Disaster prevention signs, Evaluation Index system, Independent guiding function

1. Introduction

The disaster prevention shelters of a city play an import- ant role in the pre-disaster defense, in-disaster rescue and post-disaster resettlement, and it is an important link to improve the comprehensive disaster prevention and mitiga- tion capability. However, the planning and construction for emergency shelter in china are just beginning, there are many deficiencies in the designs methods. In recent years, the natural disasters present provide high-risk situations gradually. In order to further improve the disaster preven- tion facilities and function, it has to be solved urgently that how to guide the residents to the shelter and ensure the safety at present.

Now there are eight national standards related to emer- gency guidance signs system construction in china, but most of them are safety signs, rather than disaster prevention signs, and the content is and scattered

. Some standards pro- vide some instructions for disaster prevention signs in china, such as DB11224-2004 (Earthquake emergency shelter logo) and GB2894-2008 (safety signs and guideline for the use)

, ISO3864 describes some detailed instructions for the size, color and layout

. Song Xiaoqing studied the basic characteristics of disaster prevention signs to analyze some general problems existing in the signs designs based on the

principles of function, identification and conspicuousness, and put forward some optimization methods

. Du Lijuan used the model of CAMP to carry out a simulation analysis for the location and quantity of signs, and the results showed that the boundary signs could reduce the evacuation time compared with the internal signs

. Song Bo made a thor- ough investigation and study for the emergency signs in the subway, and he thought the perfect signs guidance system could make the people judge their position quickly and form an independent evacuation guidance mode

.

This paper focused on the systematic study of signs for urban disaster prevention shelters and its associated areas to build an evaluation index system by analyzing the key factors.

2. Research Contents & Result

2.1 Field investigation of disaster prevention signs At present, 71 emergency shelters have been built in Bei- jing, the total area is about 14.06 million square meters and the capacity limit is about 2.36 million people account for only about ten percent of the total number. Some existing problems were summarized about the disaster prevention signs based on the field investigation for disaster preven- tion signs of the shelters and their surrounding area in Bei-

†

Corresponding Author, E-Mail: [email protected]

†

TEL: +82-31-8020-2637, FAX: +82-31-8020-2882

jing (such as roads, shopping malls).

2.1.1 Disaster prevention signs inside the building The function of internal signs is mainly for guidance and pre-warning, the signs should be conspicuous and relevant.

During the process of investigation, some commercial advertisements are too bright to recognize the guidance signs, some other signs block the guidance signs. In addi- tion, some background colors of buildings are similar to the wsigns, When the light is bright, it is difficult to recognize the guidance sign as shown in Fig. 1.

When the earthquake occurs, the internal signs system is the first to encounter the people. The internal signs of the buildings should keep good connectivity with the evacua- tion road, particular attention should be paid to strengthen

Fig. 1. Internal signs in buildings.

Fig. 2. Reasonable signs system.

Fig. 3. Unreasonable evacuation road signs.

the guiding function at the exit. The signs should be sys- tematic, eye-catching, and have reasonable position and color. In addition, the function should be ensured in the case of insufficient light as shown in Fig. 2.

2.1.2 Disaster prevention signs environment in the evacu- ation road

The disaster prevention signs of evacuation road play an

important role in the connection between the residential

area and the emergency shelter, and it should have suffi-

cient information, including evacuation direction, evacua-

tion distance and shelter name, etc. In the process of field

survey, part of the direction sign were found to be wrong,

and some signs be hard to find due to some trees around

them. In addition, the main intersection didn’t set up the

direction signs in the main street as shown in Fig. 3.

The disaster prevention signs of evacuation road serve as a connecting link between the preceding and the following in the sign system. So we should guarantee the right direc- tion, reasonable viewing angle and visible distance and increase number of signs in the complex road. The interac- tion should be considered between the position and the environment to avoid the obstacle blocking your view such as the green belt.

2.1.3 Disaster prevention signs environment in shelters The shelters should ensure the safety of evacuation peo- ple, and set up effective and detailed signs in different function area to be easy to find them in time for people. In the process of field survey, some signs are found too big but have very little information in it so that it is not conve- nient to get useful information for people. It is unreason- able to set up and to lack unified planning in the shelters, some districts are inadequate numbers and poor visibility as shown in Fig. 4.

The signs in emergency shelters are composed of refuge signs, staff guidance signs and emergency function district

signs. We should set reasonable density and location, but at the same time, in order to avoid too much information in the same location, disaster prevention signs should be sepa- rated from the ordinary signs such as scenic spot’s signs.

Based on the foregoing analysis, the main problems for sign system are how rapid and accurate to find evacuation route to arrive the shelter. When disasters occur, people can reach the exit, find the escape route and arrive in the shel- ter just by disaster prevention signs. People also can dis- cover corresponding functional partition inside the shelter according to the signs, such as medical, communication, consultation, material supply and other supporting facili- ties. The diagram of guidance system for disaster preven- tion sign is as shown in Fig. 5.

2.2 Construction of evaluation index system of disaster prevention signs

Currently, the code for disaster prevention signs in china is not unified, there mainly include GB 21734-2008 (Emer- gency shelter for earthquake disaster-site and it’s facilities) and GB/T 24362-2009 (Public information graphical sym- bols and signs on earthquake administration), the standard Fig 4. Emergency signs in the shelters.

Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of independent guide.

system of disaster prevention signs in our country is very deficient compared with foreign codes.

The disaster prevention signs is a complex system, which is affected by many factors, such as importance degree of building, surrounding environment and risk degree of a dis- trict, etc. We should correctly consider the connectivity between building, evacuation road and shelter in the sign system. In addition, the people’s cognitive requirements should also be considered. Based on the foregoing analysis four first-grade index and nine second-grade indexes were selected as evaluation indexes to evaluate the guidance ability, The index system and evaluation requirements are shown in Table 1.

The enhancement of guidance ability for signs system is a multi-factor considerate problem. Through determinating each index of emergency signs system of urban shelter, it can effectively improve the disaster prevention guidance function, and enhance the evacuation efficiency.

3. Conclusion

The signs system of disaster prevention emergency shel- ters is an important part of urban disaster prevention sys- tem, The signs play an important role in evacuation, relocation, thus prevent and reduce casualties. This paper gets the following conclusions according to the above anal- yses.

(1) Emergency general sign design for disaster preven- tion is a systematic project, not only considering different area and different functional requirements, but also meet- ing the needs of different groups.

(2) Disaster prevention signs system should pay more attention to effective connectivity between building, evacu- ation road and shelter, especially in the connection parts, and the combined indicative signs should be set to guide people to arrive at the target function area.

(3) The designs of signs system should meet the require- ments of systematic, humanization, internationalization and intensification. The existing signs system should be opti- mized according to the index system and relevant require- ments. When disasters occur, it can achieve independent evacuation guidance function.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Road Administration of Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport supported pro- gram —— Key Anti-collision Technology research on bridge under earthquake action and Oversea Famous Teach- ers Project of Education Department (MS2011BJKJ005).

References

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Overall

performance First-grade index Second-grade

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Ability of independent evacuation guide

Systematic

Internal function The inside of buildings should be set up with complete and continuous guide signs.

Evacuation road The continuous signs should be set up on the evacuation road Shelter Every functional area should be set up with clearl signs, so that people

easily locate them when they want to.

Humanization

Signs position The location and direction of signs should be easy to find and meet people’s viewing angle.

Signs layout

The signs layout should be marked, color, beautiful and green, some signs should be treated with luminous for convenient identification at night.

Signs content The signs designs should comply with the target requirement of different age, gender and cultural level and avoid ambiguity or misunderstanding.

Internationalization Signs language The signs language should contain a variety of language in some large shelter except Chinese.

Intensification

Signs number The emergency shelter plate should be set one at least every 500 meters.

Signs size The signs size should meet the code requirements of visual range and

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