Study of evacuation shelters for winter season to protect their lives in winter disasters

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K12493
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Natural disaster / Disaster prevention science
• Research Institution: Japanese Red Cross Hokkaido college of Nursing
• Principal Investigator: Nemoto Masahiro 日本赤十字北海道看護大学, 看護学部, 教授 (50316311)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 災害 / 避難所 / 防災 / 冬期 / 低体温症 / エコノミークラス症候群 / シェルター / 避難生活

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We conducted evaluation, verification and development on evacuation centers in the winter season. When the outside temperature was around -15 degrees Celsius, indoor temperature of the gymnasium was around 0 degrees Celsius and the floor surface was -2 degrees Celsius. This temperature may cause hypothermia when sleeping. The shelter developed was operated without heating in the severe winter season of -17 degrees Celsius. As a result, the temperature inside the shelter was only warmed by body temperature, and it remained at about 4 degrees Celsius. Even with no heating, carbon dioxide concentration increased due to human breath, reaching the upper limit of social environmental standard concentration. In the sleep situation survey, 40% woke up by cold weather. The rise in blood pressure was caused by the low temperature. It is urgent to develop an appropriate heating method. In the winter, it is necessary to carry out the assessment of the evacuation site environment in the disaster.

Free Research Field

防災学