A Study of evacuation risk in the Central business district of Yangon City and discussion on the role of Back Drainage Space

摘要

This study focuses on the role of a unique urban space called Back Drainage Space (BDS), a 15-foot wide back alley with surface drainage and underground sewage facilities which was built behind buildings to provide sufficient light and air to keep the city sanitary and protect it from flood and fire. It was implemented by the British during the colonial period and in the early days, the space was not only used as drainage space but it served as a social space for the residents. However, starting in the 1980s, BDS became cluttered with garbage. Today there are 182 BDSs in the Central Business District (CBD) of Yangon, but they have been underutilized for nearly three decades. From 2011-2015, Myanmar went through a series of political reforms towards democratic government and as a part of the transformation, Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) decided to improve the BDS environment. A large scale cleaning and repairing of the BDS started in 2015 (Figure 1).In 2017, a social enterprise called Doh Eain initiated a project called Alley Garden Project (AGP) to improve BDS and promote its use as a space for the community. As a result, eight BDSs have been transformed via collaboration between the community and the government by 2019. Impact study was carried out by the authors and the result has indicated that the use of the BDS has increased and people's perception of it has been improved ~(1)).