GB/T 44013-2024Emergency shelter - Grading and classification (English PDF)

3 Terms and definitions

The document takes its vocabulary from GB/T 44012-2024, the terminology standard for emergency shelters, and defines no terms of its own.

4 Grading

Shelters are graded on the administrative ladder, so that responsibility falls where management and the dispatch of resources already fall. Five grades are set: provincial, municipal, county, township or subdistrict, and village or community.

A provincial shelter is planned and managed at provincial level and built, kept up and used at provincial, municipal or county level. It serves people from its own region and from neighbouring provinces when a sudden event or another situation calling for emergency shelter arises. It is created by new building, conversion or designation, and is mainly an indoor, multi-purpose shelter in an urban area, for short-term and long-term stays.

A municipal shelter is planned and managed at municipal level and built, kept up and used at municipal, county or township level, serving its own area and neighbouring municipalities. It may be indoor or outdoor, multi-purpose or single-purpose, for short-term and long-term stays.

A county shelter is planned and managed at county level and built, kept up and used at county, township or village level, serving its own area and neighbouring counties. It covers urban and rural areas, may be indoor or outdoor, multi-purpose or single-purpose, and covers emergency, short-term and long-term stays alike.

A township or subdistrict shelter is planned and managed at township or county level and built, kept up and used at township or village level. It covers urban and rural areas, may be indoor or outdoor, is multi-purpose, and covers emergency, short-term and long-term stays.

A village or community shelter is planned and managed by the village or community or by the township, and built, kept up and used by the village or community, serving its own people and those of neighbouring villages. It lies in rural areas, may be indoor or outdoor, is multi-purpose, and covers emergency and short-term stays.

5 Classification

Shelters are classified four ways at once: by sheltering time and the technical indicators that go with it, giving emergency, short-term and long-term shelters; by building and site category, giving indoor shelters, which take in the mixed indoor and outdoor case, and outdoor shelters; by overall function, giving multi-purpose and single-purpose shelters; and, where a particular protective function is called for, special shelters.

An emergency shelter offers immediate refuge to people within its service radius, with the facilities and supplies that answer the basic level of provision, and also serves as the place people gather before moving on to another kind of shelter. It suits earthquake, geological, flood, typhoon and rainstorm, forest and grassland fire, work safety accident and air raid situations. Sheltering time is under one day. Effective area per person is not less than 2.0 square metres indoors and not less than 1.5 square metres outdoors. The service radius is within 1 km, reachable on foot in 10 min to 15 min. Facilities and supplies answer the needs of assembly and dispersal, command and management, medical treatment, supply storage, washing, refuse handling, emergency parking, power, water, firefighting, ventilation, heating, access routes, repair and construction work, accessibility and signage, with local adjustment up or down.

A short-term shelter offers immediate refuge and then a short stay with centralised relief. It suits the same situations as the emergency shelter and, in addition, low temperature and snow, tsunami, ecological and public health events. Sheltering time is 2 to 14 days. Effective area per person is not less than 2.5 square metres indoors and not less than 2.0 square metres outdoors. The service radius is within 2.5 km, reachable on foot in 30 min to 40 min. On top of what the emergency shelter provides come facilities and supplies for lodging, disease isolation, catering, waste water and security.

A long-term shelter offers immediate refuge and then a long stay with centralised relief. It suits earthquake, geological, flood, low temperature and snow, tsunami, forest and grassland fire, ecological, public health and air raid situations. Sheltering time is 15 days or more but not beyond 180 days. Effective area per person is not less than 3.0 square metres indoors and not less than 2.5 square metres outdoors. The service radius is within 5 km, reachable on foot in 70 min to 90 min. On top of what the short-term shelter provides come facilities and supplies for recreation and sport, temporary teaching, public services and helicopter landing.

An indoor shelter is built in a public building or indoor space and may be an emergency, short-term or long-term shelter, multi-purpose or single-purpose. The mixed indoor and outdoor case counts as indoor when the number of people the indoor part can hold passes 30 per cent of the total. Such shelters draw on schools, sports and cultural venues, hotels, welfare homes, civil defence shelters, industrial buildings, and township and village offices and cultural service centres, and are designed for disaster, epidemic and air defence uses together, or at least keep the interfaces those uses would need.

An outdoor shelter is built on open public ground and on cultural, sporting and educational facilities, as an emergency or short-term shelter, multi-purpose or single-purpose, and as a long-term shelter where that is actually needed. Such shelters draw on parks, green space, squares, sports grounds, school playgrounds, surface car parks, civil defence evacuation bases, and rural threshing floors and gentle ground of less than 7 per cent slope. The same rule on designing for several uses together applies.

A multi-purpose shelter is one built by pooling resources across several hazards and accidents, or across epidemic and air defence needs as well, and it has to serve at least two kinds of sheltering. A single-purpose shelter is built against one kind, and its sheltering time, area per person, service radius, capacity and provision are fixed to suit local conditions.

A special shelter answers a particular need such as protection against poison, explosion or radiation, and its indicators are fixed to suit that function. Examples given are the refuge chamber for mine work safety accidents, the public refuge room for a major toxic gas release, and the refuge floor for fire in a high rise building.

A Annex A, grades against types

An informative annex crosses the five grades with twelve combinations of type, being indoor and outdoor, each split into multi-purpose and single-purpose, each split again into emergency, short-term and long-term.

The provincial grade is marked only for the indoor, multi-purpose, short-term and long-term cases. The municipal grade is marked for the short-term and long-term cases in all four groups but for none of the emergency cases. The county grade is marked in all twelve. The township or subdistrict grade is marked for all three multi-purpose cases indoors and outdoors, and for none of the single-purpose ones. The village or community grade is marked for the emergency and short-term multi-purpose cases indoors and outdoors only.

The annex adds that the grade and type combinations of special shelters are worked out by reference to the same table.