Methods for assessing asbestos-containing roofing slate distribution in an area with poor dwelling conditions

In South Korea, asbestos has been used in large quantities for manufacturing asbestos cement roofing slates (ACRS) and the production and use of all types of asbestos were completely banned in 2009. Asbestos containing materials in buildings and ACRS are linked to environmental and human health problems. An area with poor dwelling conditions was selected as the study area, and all buildings (76) were examined for ACRS. Three survey methods were compared, namely, field investigation, building registers, and data collection using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The field investigation results reported 2785.3 m² of ACRS in a total of 38 buildings. The results were significantly different from those of the building register survey (1255.8 m² for 11 buildings) and the UAV survey (1043.7 m² for 18 buildings). The building register and UAV survey methods were limited by incomplete data or data unavailability, when compared with the data associated with the field investigation. However, the former approaches require less labor and time, with decreased exposure of the investigators to asbestos. Therefore, the organic combination and proper application of such methods can reduce labor and time required to conduct surveys and yield sufficient accuracy.