Realization of a Safe and Secure SocietyzResearch Trends and Results

Research on Evaluation andCountermeasure Technology to Ensure
Safety During Daily Life Activities ofPeople Using Architectural Space
TAKAMI Shinji, HeadStandards and Accreditation System Division, Building Department
ONO Kumiko, ResearcherBridge and Structures Division, Building Department

Research Trends & Results(Key words) Everyday disasters, safety and security, accident prevention measures, knowledge base
1. Background to and Purpose of the Research
As a reflection of the aging of society, many accidents
occur within buildings in the course of daily life,including falls in corridors, falling down stairs, and so on.
When estimated based on statistics, the number of deaths
caused by such accidents will rise as rapidly as traffic
accident fatalities in the future. Although there are cases
where such accidents are caused by the lack of care ofbuilding users, there are also cases where they are theresult of inadequate awareness of the occurrence ofaccidents by building designers and managers, and if
these cases are analyzed, it will be possible for users,
designers, and managers to each clarify risk throughaccident cases, and to prevent many accidents byexercising a specified degree of care.
This research collected examples of accidents whichhave occurred in the normal daily lives and activities ofusers (building users) in such buildings at the same time
as it clarified accident occurrence mechanisms andstudied accident prevention measures. The results havebeen collected and released to the public on the internet
since mid August 2009 as the Building Accident
Prevention Knowledge Base (Fig. 1).
2. Outline of the Building Accident Prevention
Knowledge BaseTo prevent accidents in buildings during use, it isnecessary to deal thoroughly with each part of a building
according to the way it is presumably used or the way it
is actually used, and in many cases this cannot becovered by building standards which are uniformly
applied. The Building Accident Prevention Knowledge
Base (below called, “Knowledge Base) must reduce
accidents caused by carelessness in buildings (and onlots) by serving as reference materials to encourage
designers, managers, and users to exercise adequate care.
The Knowledge Base deals mainly with accidents inpublic buildings, and contains 750 (scheduled to beincreased regularly in the future) accidents andnear-accidents, judicial precedents concerning accidents

caused in buildings which were collected throughquestionnaire surveys, searches for judicial precedents,
and reports on accidents in schools, permitting people tosearch for and refer to accidents based on the type anddegree of accidents, places accidents occur etc. And in
addition to these, the Knowledge Base provides a wide
range of knowledge and information, by permitting
searches for related records and documents, providing
survey reports, and permitting experts to contributeinformation regarding 110 accident patterns prepared byclassifying accidents and countermeasures andprecautions for each of these patterns. And theknowledge base is also equipped with a function for thesubmission by building users of their experience ofaccidents and of near-misses which did not become real
accidents, and a function allowing the contribution of
information such as examples of innovations introduced
during design and execution and during building
operation regarding measures to prevent everyday
accidents on the assumption that building designers andbuilding managers will contribute information. And toexpand information of use in predicting accidents, it iscounted on to aggressively provide information frompeople in various fields who have referred to theKnowledge Base.

Figure 1. Building Accident Prevention Knowledge
Base (Top Page)
http://www.tatemonojikoyobo.nilim.go.jp/