Building Triage in Response to Wide-Area Bio-Releases: Concepts and Building Classification System.

摘要

In order to support effective responses to a wide-area release of an airborne biological, chemical or radiological agent in an urban area, a building triage approach is proposed for estimating the contamination levels within specific buildings that are likely to have been affected by the release. Current approaches to estimating building contamination do not typically account for differences in building design and operation that are known to impact airborne contaminant entry. The building triage concept is proposed as a means to account for these differences between buildings in estimating contamination levels. This report describes the triage concept in terms of the steps involved and the information required and produced at each step. Key efforts still needed to develop and evaluate this triage approach are then discussed, primarily the definition of a building classification system that will be used to identify key building features relevant to the level of contamination. In addition, generic building models need to be defined that will be used with the classification system, and an initial collection of buildings is described here. Future work that will follow the development of the classification system and the generic buildings is also described, specifically the development of calculation tools to estimate the contamination levels in specific buildings based on their particulate design, occupancy and operation characteristics. Ultimately, the usefulness and practicality of applying the building classification system, the generic building types and the calculation methods will need to be evaluated in demonstration exercises of wide-area releases and response.