Disaster management plan for residential-cum-commercial property in Mumbai: a case study

Abstract

A residential-cum-commercial property consisting of seven buildings with approximately 50 m height in Mumbai city of India was considered for disaster management study. The main objective of this study was to minimize all the losses of any kind of possible disasters like fire, lighting, cyclone, flood, earthquake and terrorist attack. Each disaster was imposed on the project design and responses were formulated in order to minimize the damage to lives and resources. Public address systems and alarm systems have been installed at the project site to alert the residents about the disasters and to give directions which are to be followed. Fire mitigation and detection equipment are also present at the project site. In this study, accessibility of the fire tender from each side of the buildings has been analyzed. Assembly points for emergencies have been designated for the project. Lightning arrestors have been installed for protection against lightning strikes. Natural drainage network within 1 km radius from the project site has been analyzed using geographic information system to prevent the. CCTV for security, signages for evacuation plan and rescue equipment have been installed throughout the project site to save lives in priority. The key findings are the losses due to disasters could be minimized with proper planning which might have cost for execution, operation and maintenance. This comprehensive study can be referred for planning to minimize the loss of lives and resources in high-rise buildings in case of disasters in urban area.