Evaluating the Urban Environment’s Resilience against Natural Hazards (Specially Earthquakes) Using GIS and F-AHP (Case Study: Masjed Soleyman City)

Document Type : Independent Research Articles

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Geography and Urban Planning, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

2 M.A. Student of Geography and Rural Planning, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

3 Assistant Professor of Geography and Rural Planning, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

Abstract

Urban areas have become grounds for many natural disasters and are highly vulnerable to them. Therefore, the urban managers’ and planners’ main task is to protect people from these natural disasters. Today, resilience is widely used in natural disaster management. Based on this concept, different societies examine ways to strengthen and improve their power against natural disasters. As a result, it is necessary to study various aspects of resilience in urban areas. The present study aims to evaluate the urban environment’s resilience against natural hazards, especially earthquakes, in Masjed Soleyman. This study employed a theoretical-applied research design based on the descriptive-analytical method. The data were collected via a combination of library techniques and field research (a researcher-made questionnaire). The criteria’ relative weights were calculated using the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Buckley’s fuzzy weights of the selected criteria. As the results depicted, the variables affecting the urban environment’s resilience against natural hazards (especially earthquakes) in Masjed Soleyman City are building skeleton, type of materials, number of floors, age of the building, building quality, number of units, and width of passages. Most of the areas of Masjed Soleyman City are not resistant to earthquakes or have low resilience. Based on the seven studied indicators, the city does not have a favorable situation in terms of resilience to earthquakes and more than half of the city area (56.25%) has unfavorable resilience. The order of the effect of the urban environment resilience components of Masjed Soleyman against earthquakes, based on their weights, is the number of units, number of floors, the width of passages, age of the building, quality of the building, structure of the building, and type of materials.

Keywords

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Urban Structure and Function Studies
Volume 10, Issue 36
2023
Pages 63-87

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History

  • Receive Date: 23 January 2023
  • Accept Date: 25 September 2023

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