CREATING FLOODING RESILIENCE IN BUILDINGS FOR AGING OMMUNITIES IN TAIWAN

When the rainy season approaches the flood-prone areas of Taiwan, it becomes a major source of psychological stress for residents who experienced floods, especially for the elderly. The aging community faces additional threat of health concerns during flooding evacuation. This research investigates the relationship between the elderly and their flooding resilience. During the recent 2018 extreme flood event, we found that the elderly maintained better health conditions staying at home than being evacuated to a refugee center. A series of interviews in the flood-prone and aging communities in Tainan City were concluded. In addition, given the problem of elderly people living alone and the reduced perception for pending disaster, it is important to properly and appropriately implement IT equipment into the daily life of the elderly, so that relatives, neighbors, and village heads can keep abreast of the activities of the elderly. Therefore, improving the flood control capacity of buildings and improving the connection between the elderly and IT systems is an indispensable key step in the strategy of improving senior residents’ flood resilience. Finally, this paper revealed several Taiwanese flooding reconnaissance findings for building resiliency and concluded with shortfalls of Taiwan’s building regulations.