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Classification and Fire Safety of Informal Settlements in China

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Abstract

Approximately 1 billion people in the world still live in informal settlements with comparatively low living standards and outdated firefighting equipment. In recent years, informal settlement fires have occurred frequently and globally, however, research into informal settlement fires in the Far East remains underdeveloped. This work briefly summarizes informal settlement types and discusses their fire safety characteristics in China. It is shown that informal settlements in China include non-compliant buildings, non-standard altered buildings, non-permanent buildings, and traditional ethnic minority buildings. More relevant research is needed to promote equity of fire safety outcomes for all.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the USTC Research Funds of the Double First-Class Initiative (YD2320002005), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52176137), University of Science and Technology of China Start Research Funding (KY2320000023), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WK2320000051) and Fund of Chinese Academy of Sciences Taiwan Young Talent Programme (Grant No. 2020TWJA0001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Yu Wang, Ting Xia, Hongli Ruan & Jinhua Sun

  2. Institute of Advanced Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Yu Wang & Hongli Ruan

  3. State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Chia Lung Wu

  4. Edinburgh Fire Research Centre, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    David Rush & Luke Bisby

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  1. Yu Wang
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  2. Ting Xia
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Correspondence to Yu Wang.

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Wang, Y., Xia, T., Ruan, H. et al. Classification and Fire Safety of Informal Settlements in China. Fire Technol 59, 2949–2959 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-023-01488-3

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