Fire risk assessment of UNESCO Historic Villages by heat flux from forest fire

Abstract

Most structures in ASIA UNESCO Historic Wooden Villages are timber framed houses with thatched or shingled roofs that are combustible materials; they are thus exposed to the risk of forest fires. The study examined the effect of the heat flux on the houses in Yangdong UNESCO Historic Village as a result of forest fires to evaluate to what degree of risk they are exposed to. After distinguished the tree species of major structural components of wooden buildings. This was done by getting the precise location information on the houses in Yangdong Village with the GIS analysis, collating the information on the construction materials and conducting the numerical analysis on heat flux in case of forest fires. The results showed as follows: around 10% of the houses are directly exposed to the danger of forest fires and 5% of all the houses are expected to be subject to the indirect effects due to the proliferation of the initial forest fires. In conclusion, it was determined that appropriate and effective methods of forest fire prevention and fighting need to be sought, and they should be based on eliminating the possible fuels for forest fires that are nearby the fire-vulnerable houses, securing enough separation distances and installing waterproof facilities.