Search

In the past three decades, fire engineering has experienced fast development worldwide. Fire regulations for building industry were moved from prescriptive description to performance-based specification. This trend started in the UK in the 1980s and spread to other western countries. Hong Kong closely followed the UK development and adopted the approach of performance-based design (PBD) for the Hong Kong International Airport and MTR stations in the early 1990s. The Government of Hong Kong SAR formally recognised the PBD approach in the prescriptive codes of practice in the mid-1990s and developed the performance-based code (PBC) in the 2000s. This PBC was promulgated in 2011. The evolution in fire engineering impacted the fire community in Mainland China. The State Key Laboratory of Fire Science (SKLFS) was established in University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1991. Then fire science and fire engineering stepped into the fast development track. The building industry in Mainland China started to adopt the PBD approach in the early 2000s for the significant developments including large airport terminals, railway and metro stations, super high-rise buildings, and mega commercial centres. However, a structured PBC system is not available within the regulatory framework to date. Adoption of PBD approach is slowing down in recent years. This paper presents a review of fire engineering development in Hong Kong and Mainland China. The review focuses on the development of the PBC in Hong Kong, and the PBD approach and fire research in Mainland China in the past 30 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the rapid urbanization and economic growth in China over the last four decades, the higher education in Fire Safety Science and Engineering has been developed and changed significantly. This work systemically reviews the origin and evolution of fire safety higher education history in China, from Fire Protection Technology (before the 1980s) to Fire Safety Science and Engineering (from about 1985 to the 2010s) and to Human-Oriented Public Safety and Smart Firefighting (from the 2010s to today). The scopes of fire safety discipline are discussed by introducing the requirements of firefighters, registered professional fire protection engineers and safety engineers in China. The courses and curriculum in fire safety higher education in representative universities are introduced and compared in detail. By comparing their undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, we explain the context of fire safety education in different universities. From a historical viewpoint, we introduce the unique features and the diversity developed in different institutes, based on the evolution of programme documents and first-hand teaching materials. This review aims to introduce the higher education systems of fire safety in China to the world and encourage more international collaboration with the Chinese fire safety science and engineering communities in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]