A Study of Engineering Identification of Major Manmade Disasters– An Example of The Gas Explosion in Kaohsiung

• Main Authors: Chao-Yu Huang, 黃昭瑜
• Other Authors: Chung-Fah Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/v3ec7y

碩士 === 國立高雄應用科技大學 === 土木工程與防災科技研究所 === 103 === At 23:56 on July 31st, 2014, a devastating incident of gas explosion caused by human negligence took place at the intersection of Kaisyuan 3rd Road and Ersheng 1st Road. The disaster caused not only serious damage to the buildings along several major roads in Kaohsiung but also overwhelming disruptions of the sewage system under those roads. In addition to the restoration work after the disaster, it is also very important for the government to evaluate the structural risks of the buildings in the affected area, pay due damage compensations to affected residents, and clarify the accountability for this man-made disaster. Therefore, the Kaohsiung Architects Association, Kaohsiung Structural Engineers Association, and Taiwan Structural Engineers Association all helped the Kaohsiung City Government by voluntarily providing their professional appraisal services after the disaster. Since the gas explosion incident is a large-scale man-made disaster, the appraisal work is urgent, unprecedented and different from common appraisal procedures. Therefore, it is worthwhile to keep records of this appraisal process. In this study, the subjects are the post-disaster appraisers for the gas explosion disaster. Two of the appraisers and one specialist from a relevant authority of the Kaohsiung City Government were interviewed to understand the appraisal procedure, possible problems in the appraisal process, and actual implementation. Then the information from the interviews was used to design the questionnaire in this study. Totally 58 valid samples were collected and then statistically analyzed using SPSS to explore how the subjects thought about the mentality of affected residents in their damage claims, the professionalism of the appraisers, social responsibility, and related policies of the government. Based on the analysis results, the following conclusion and suggestions are formed in this study: 1. The voluntarism of the appraisers out of their commitment to social responsibility is truly commendable. However, in the appraisal process, they might have relaxed their standards due to their sympathy toward the affected residents. However, they also witnessed the selfish side of human nature in the appraisal process. 48.3% of thembelieved that the affected residents had inflated their damage claims to order to gain maximum profits. Therefore, it is suggested that quantifiable standards should be established in order to reduce unreasonable appraisals. 2. It is also found in this study that only 32.7% of the affected residents were satisfied with the government’s appraisals. This finding indicates there is still room for improvement for the government in this aspect. It is suggested that the government should establish a centralized and dedicated organization in order to facilitate the post-disaster appraisal work.