DOI: 10.5176/2425-0112_UPPD17.26
Authors: Mengwen Feng, Dr. Jon Bryan Burley, Dr. Trisha Machemer, Dr. Armagan Korkmaz
Abstract: Planners, designers, government officials and citizens are interested in creating safe environments, such as in mitigating the effects of earthquakes. In this investigation, various landscapes associated with the Wenchuan earthquake in China are examined to assess environmental safety. Three landscape treatments (k=3) were assessed by seven variables (b=7). The study employed the Freidman analysis of variance statistics to test the treatments, resulting in the confirmation that some treatments were significantly better and safer than other designs (p≤0.05). The designs that were significantly more safe include spaces where the buildings are less tall, there is more space between the building, the buildings are neither in the floodplain nor in landslide zones, there are many escape routes for people experiencing and earthquake and there are large open environments for refugees and the transportation provided by helicopters. If such principles were in common practice during the 20th century, approximately 421,000 earthquake-related deaths could have been avoided.
Keywords: landscape architecture; environmental design; disaster planning; landscape hazards; urban planning
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