11:45 AM - 12:00 PM
[051] A Field Survey on Obstacles that Older Adults Encountered on Routes to Disaster Shelters
Keywords:Disaster Risk Reduction, Designated disaster shelter, Alternative disaster shelter
The population is aging rapidly, and frequent natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods have become severe issues in Japan. Several studies report how older adults are highly vulnerable to the negative consequences of disasters and many older adults might will been victims of these disasters. This study aims to understand obstacles that older adults encounter on routes to disaster shelters. This study asked 28 older adults to walk from their homes to two shelters. One route is the route to the designated shelter. The other route is from their home to a nearby shelter, although it is not designated (an alternative shelter). After walking two routes, we investigated that what’s kinds of obstacles older adults recognized on their routes. As a result of the analysis with GIS, the average distance to the from home to the designated shelter was 672.26 m and distance to an alternative shelter was 1173.39m. For older adults, there were some obstacles regardless of the distance. The major obstacles were the road's gradient, and the second was the width of the road. Older adults are vulnerable to disasters, so confirming the evacuation route and understanding their obstacles is essential for disaster risk reduction. This study provides a base for developing suitable evacuation plans for vulnerable people considering their living environments. In addition, this study implies that it is essential to understand for vulnerable people the route to alternative shelters.