Evaluation of Zahedan City Defense Vulnerability using the AHP Method

Today we are witnessing the changing nature of wars: large-scale missile airstrikes at the commencement of hostilities and during the conflict period, on vital and critical resources such as administrative, commercial and educational facilities and even residential areas. Therefore, vulnerability assessment and development of appropriate strategies to reduce the vulnerability and damage to the cities at wartime are necessary. Crisis management is one of the most important goals that planners and city managers are trying to implement today for reducing the vulnerability of urban infrastructures in order to minimize the amount of damage. Passive defense is a suitable approach that can be effective in creating a safe environment in cities. In this investigation, the city of zahedan has been designated as the research area. The strategic position of this city and a common land border with neighboring countries have made studying its vulnerability of special importance. This research aims to identify key and dangerous centers in zahedan city and to study the safety of urban spaces in zahedan city according to the principles of passive defense and also to identify and eliminate factors that reduce safety in the city. In this study, after identifying the location of key points and urban hazards, the vulnerability status of zahedan city is examined based on relevant indicators and application of the AHP and GIS hierarchical methods. Then taking into account the opinion of experts, seven main criteria along with sub-criteria are listed as important elements and areas of zahedan city. The super decision software has been used to score these criteria. The final vulnerability map of the area is prepared in three areas of low vulnerability, medium vulnerability and high vulnerability by ArcMap software which has the capability of overlaying maps. Finally, some strategies to reduce the vulnerability of Zahedan urban structure are presented.