Abstract
With the development, densification and
demographic change within cities, existing evacuation
areas in some places no longer meets the needs of
evacuees. Especially, additional evacuation areas need to
be designated in locations with elderly people who are not
able to walk fast or for long distances. This study aims to
verify the security of an Urban Redevelopment Area,
which could potentially be used as an alternative
evacuation area, using the Hamada theory to determine
whether it meets the safety requirements. The number of
people that can be accommodated in the area are also
calculated. In this study, the East Redevelopment Area of
Hikifune station in Sumida ward was selected as the study
area. Employing the Hamada theory, this study calculates
the usable safe area for evacuation, given different
scenarios of fire occurrence in the surroundings of the
redevelopment areas with consideration to the building
structure and building density and therefore the firespread
characteristics of the area. The calculation results
show that the study area can achieve sufficient safety
levels under different conditions and could be used as an
evacuation area for surrounding residents. Also, this study
examines the beneficial effects of reducing building
density and increasing fireproof structures for preventing
the fire spread.
