Preparedness and infrastructure design for disaster and emergency situations : the key to a resilient community

Natural disasters appear to be growing in number and intensity due to global warming, population explosion, widespread travel and the overcrowding of cities. We aimed to augment students' knowledge and awareness of disaster situations with a focus on the needs of special populations (e.g., elderly people, people with disabilities, children, pregnant women) to develop the infrastructure needed for improving preparedness and resilience. Design concepts were developed in studios by industrial design and architecture graduate students. Representative design concepts of infrastructures, including designs for shelter and storage facilities and communication and information hubs, solutions for rescuing individuals from fires using smart innovative technologies and design concepts for people with special needs, are presented. We believe that preparedness and the development of infrastructure designs will increase individual and national population resilience, increase trust among the citizens in the municipality and enable people to successfully cope with potential traumatic events, thus leading to a physically and mentally healthy community.