Assessing the accessibility to fire hazards in preserving historical towns: Case studies in suburban Shanghai, China

Abstract

Protecting large-scale heritage settlements from being damaged by fires has become increasingly crucial in developing areas that lack adequate legislation, emergency planning, and particularly efficient techniques. This study provides a systematic emergency assessment methodology for evaluating the accessibility of specific fire-fighting techniques to mitigate fire hazards in historical towns and examines how the integration of municipal and local fire services works. Specifically, this paper examines the accessibility of fire trucks, local fire services and the overall protection capacity. There are quantitative calculations of the obstruction degrees on main streets, the feasible moving distances of fire-fighting vehicles and firefighters at a given time, and the fire protection coverage and intensity in each town. Using these methods, this paper systematically assesses the fire resistance of three historical towns, Chuansha, Gaoqiao and Fengjing, as case studies. In contrast to previous studies focusing on the vulnerability of buildings in large historical settlements, this assessment method combines an examination of street networks and various emergency response techniques and is particularly applicable to developing areas.