CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study, objectives of the study,

significance of the study, scope and delimitation of the study, and definition of terms.

Background of the Study

Being located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is frequently visited by

different types of calamities such as typhoon, flooding, earthquake, and volcanic

eruption, that claim thousands of lives of Filipinos without a year spared. Effects of these

calamities with its magnitude unimaginable, wreak havoc leaving people homeless and

no access to other basic needs like food and water as lifelines, transportation and

communication are down.

One of the most devastating typhoons that strike Philippines is the Typhoon

Haiyan or Super Typhoon Yolanda, was one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever

recorded. It is the deadliest Philippine typhoon on record, killing at least 6300 people in

the country alone (www.wikipedia.com).

Emergency evacuation centers play a very important role in these times of crises.

Emergency evacuation centers are a required aspect of any recognized crisis operations

plan. When an urgent situation arises and these shelters are needed, the general public

expects that officials have thoroughly planned their implementation process. To assist

communities with accomplishing this goal, guidelines have been established by the

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Philippine Red Cross (PRC). It states “to provide relief in times of disasters and to carry

on measures to minimize the suffering caused by them.” Disaster preparedness is one of

the major components of its program that aims to prepare especially the vulnerable

communities in the event of calamities.

Evacuation shelter systems as a type of building construction for which there is a

vast range and diversity of forms, structural and assembly solutions. They are designed to

provide weather protected enclosure for a wide range of human activities. Enclosure

requirements are generally very simple, with the majority needing only a weather

protecting membrane or skin supported by some form of erectable structure. In all

applications, both the envelope and structure need to be capable of being easily moved in

the course of normal use, which very often requires the building system to be assembled

at any prepared sites. Structures can vary in scale depending on the area to be built upon.

Consequently, design requirements vary considerably with application and size of

enclosure (Burford & Gengnagel, 2004).

Whenever there are natural calamities, affected families flock school buildings

even churches that are used as evacuation centers. The economic and social costs of

using school buildings and open space structures as evacuation centers are just too high.

School classes are hampered to give way to families seeking refuge. But these facilities

are not normally intended for such purposes for an extended period of time as the

rebuilding of the stricken communities takes time. Situations in these types of emergency

facilities are horrible and we usually see people stripped of their dignity.

These scenarios are not new to the Philippines, we have them long time ago, what

we do not have an emergency facility to that are really intended for evacuation, easy to

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produce or construct, economical, and environment-friendly (DGEHC – Stricken

Community).

The proposed project is an evacuation center building that will be located, for now

primarily at an area within the Philippines. The area is pre-identified by the respective

local government as generally safe for evacuation. Such location is preselected on the

criteria of ground stability being out of harm's way from fault lines, landslides, and land

subsidence; flood hazards being located in an elevated area distant from the dangers of

flash floods; accessibility to transportation and water supply. Location site as case study

are initially proposed at Barangay Libas, Roxas City, Capiz.

Brgy. Libas, Roxas City is situated at approximately 11.5965,122.7167, in the

island of Panay, Elevation at these coordinates is estimated at 1.7 meters above mean sea

level. Houses along coastal area are mostly made of light materials that can be easily

destroyed or heavily damage if a fire, typhoon or any disaster will occur. Due to the lack

of access to the existing evacuation center located at Brgy. Milibili, the following

barangays like Libas, Baybay, Culasi, Dayao in the City of Roxas are affected by this

problem. Evacuees need to travel some distances that will put their lives at risk.

Since safety of the community should be considered first, the researchers of this

study propose a one-storey evacuation center to be constructed at Brgy. Libas, Roxas

City, Capiz. This evacuation center will cater the needs of the evacuees and to put them

into safety during calamities and can be used for other purposes like recreation activities,

important gatherings and other activities if there are no calamities.

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Objectives of the Study

The main objective of the study is to Proposed a one-storey evacuation center

located at Brgy. Libas, Roxas City, Capiz.

Specifically, it aims to answer the following objectives.

1. To prepare working plans of One-storey Evacuation Center.

2. To design the structure using NSCP 2015.

3. To estimate the total cost of the project.

4. To prepare program of works of the project.

Significance of the Study

The proposed evacuation center will benefit the government, community,

evacuees, workers, researchers, and engineers.

The Government. The government will have a great benefit from the project for

this will provide a venue in implementing disaster risk management of the community

while keeping the safety of its people.

The Community. The community has a great benefit of this project for this will

cater their needs not only during and after disaster, but also during community activities

such as spiritual or physical gathering ang the like.

The Evacuees. The evacuees are those people who are in great need when it

comes to evacuation. They are the one who will be benefited by this evacuation for it will

serve as their shelter that can protect them during and after disaster.

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 The Engineers. The engineers are those who are assigned to design the structure

of the project. It will be a great opportunity for them to design and manage a project

The Workers. The workers will be benefited by this project, for this will help

them find a job, to defray their needs for the meantime while project is constructed.

The Researchers. The researchers will be benefited from this research study for

it will serve as a baseline information that may help them if they will conduct similar

research project.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This study intends to design a One-storey Evacuation Center at Brgy. Libas,

Roxas City, Capiz that will serve as a shelter facility for the communities during and after

disasters. It will also serve as a Multi-purpose center to cater the community activities or

events like gatherings, recreational activities or meetings. Specifically, it will

accommodate the problems of the surrounding barangay that do not have access to

evacuation center. The proposed evacuation center in barangay Libas, Roxas City, Capiz

is a One-Storey Evacuation Center Building and to be built on approximately 1900

square meter lot.

The scope of this research is focused on the technical aspects, such as the

architectural and structural design of the project, plans and elevation design, the

PERT/CPM. Lastly, it also entails the financial aspects of the project.

Electrical and Plumbing works was expressed as percentage of the total structural

cost.

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 Soil Testing is not included in this study and soil was assumed to be 95%

compacted.

Definition of Terms

Concrete - usually Portland cement concrete, is a composite material composed

of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that

hardens over time, most frequently a lime-based cement binder, such as Portland cement,

but sometimes with other hydraulic cements, such as a calcium aluminate cement (www.

Wikipedia.com).

Operationally, a concrete is the primary materials to be used in this project.

Structure - is something of many parts that is put together. A structure can be a

skyscraper, an outhouse, your body, or a sentence. It is from the Latin word structural

which means “a fitting together, building” (www.vocabulary.com).

Operationally, a structure is a project of a One-Storey Evacuation Center

Building.

Steel - is a commercial iron that contains carbon in any amount up to about 1.7

percent as an essential alloying constituent, is malleable when under suitable conditions,

and is distinguished from cast iron by its malleability and lower carbon content (Meriam-

Webster Incorporation).

Operationally, steel is a major material to be used in this project for it will make

this structure stronger.

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 Evacuation - is the rapid movement of people away from the immediate threat or

impact of a disaster to a safer place of shelter. It is commonly characterized by a short

time frame, from hours to weeks, within which emergency procedures need to be enacted

to save lives and minimize exposure to harm (CCCM Cluster, 2014:16).

In this study, it refers to the movement of people moving towards the evacuation

center.

Evacuation Center - is a temporary or provisional safe space that provides a

basic shelter for people affected by a disaster (CCCM Cluster, 2014:16).

Operationally, it refers to the proposed project which is the evacuation center.

Evacuee - is a person who has evacuated a hazardous location in response to the

immediate threat or impact of a disaster, either through their own initiative and resources

(self-evacuated) or through the direction and assistance of authorities and/or emergency

responder (CCCM Cluster, 2014:18).

In this study, it refers to the people that will benefit this proposed project.

Multipurpose Center - is defined as a theatre, university, museum, conference

center, art gallery, facility for the performance of sports, cultural, or tourism-related

activities, indoor park, and a building/facility that primarily serves as recreational

playground or workspace (abra.dc.gov).

Operationally, it refers to the other function of the propose project which is

multipurpose center

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 Cost Estimates - A cost estimate is the approximation of the cost of a program,

project or operation. The cost estimate is the product of the cost estimating process

(www.wikepedia.org).

In this study, it refers to the cost of the proposed evacuation center including the

structural cost, and the electrical and plumbing cost, expressed as percentage of the total

structural cost.

NSCP 2015 - National Structural Code of the Philippines 2015 edition. The

purpose of this code is to provide minimum requirements for the design of the buildings ,

towers and other vertical structures, and minimum standards and guidelines to safeguard

life or limb, property and public welfare by regulating and controlling the design,

construction, quality of materials pertaining to the structural aspects of all buildings and

structures within this jurisdiction (NSCP, 2015).

Operationally, this would refer to the design and standards guideline incorporated

in the designing stages of the proposed building. For the purposes of, and throughout this

study, the terms “NSCP 2015” and “Code” shall have the same meaning and shall be

used interchangeably. It refers to the guide in designing the proposed evacuation center

cum multipurpose building.

Schedule of Works - In project management, a schedule is a listing of projects

milestone, activities, deliverables, usually intended start and finish dates. Those items are

often estimated by other information included in the project schedule of resources,

allocation, budget, task duration, and linkages of dependencies and schedule events. A

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schedule is commonly used in the project planning and project portfolio management

parts of the project management (www.wikepedia.org).

Operationally it refers to the schedule of activities to be done for the proposed

project.

Working Plans - Plans are a set of drawings or two-dimensional diagrams used

to describe a place or object, or to communicate building or fabrication instructions.

Usually plans are drawn or printed on paper, but they can take the form of a digital file

(www.wikepedia.org).

It refers to the architectural and structural plans of the proposed evacuation center.

Structural Analysis - Structural analysis is the process of calculating and

determining the effects of loads and internal forces on a structure, building or object.

Structural Analysis is particularly important for structural engineers to ensure they

completely understand the load paths and the impacts the loads have on their engineering

design. It allows engineers or designers to ensure a piece of equipment or structure is safe

for use under the estimated loads it is expected to withstand. Structural Analysis can

either be performed during design, testing or post-construction and will generally account

for the materials used, geometry of the structure and applied loads (www.skyciv.com).

In this study, it refers to a series of calculations or computations based on

gathered

data necessary in the process of designing the one-storey evacuation.