The Assessment of Physical Vulnerability of Urban Settlements (Case Study: Ahvaz City)

Cities always face the possibility of abnormal situations and encounter problems when the normal conditions change. Man-made hazards and natural disasters can lead to crises. Nowadays, the management of man-made crises is intertwined with the issues of passive defense and resilience, and provides an effective approach to reduce problems in hard times. Physical factors play a crucial role in crisis management. Ahvaz is one of the strategic cities of Iran, which has always been at risk due to its geographical location, natural resources, and industries. This study aims primarily to identify the physically risk-prone zones of Ahvaz and provide appropriate strategies to increase urban resilience. Based on the intensive method, this research has used a combination of descriptive, documentary, developmental, and analytical methods with a theoretical-applied nature, to express the quantity and quality of components related to the principles and criteria of passive defense regarding the resilience of Ahvaz city. The physical risk-proneness of Ahvaz is evaluated considering some criteria such as the urban cores, the age of ancient neighborhoods, the building density, the patterns of neighboring land uses, the network of passages and strategic areas. For this purpose, 14 indices were prepared according to the mentioned criteria with the lowest risk priority. The indices were weighted by Super Decisions software, then mapped in the ArcGIS environment. The results show that except for some small areas in the west, northwest and southwest regions, other areas are at high risk and require more attention to achieve the desired standards in the field of resilience and passive defense.