Evaluation of urban usage compatibility in order to increase the Resilience against earthquake, Case Study: District 4 of Tabriz Municipality

Investigations on the rates of damages and casualties caused by earthquake in the cities have shown that in many cases, high percentage of casualties are directly or indirectly associated with undesirable state of urban planning and urban risks reduction. In fact, it can be said that the major causes of damages and casualties caused by the earthquake, in addition to the negligence and nonchalance in observing the safety standards of structures, can also be resulted from the lack of appropriate urban development principles and plans. It is noteworthy that one of the issues of urbanization and urban planning that can be effective in reducing the earthquake effects and incrementing the urban Resilience is the compatibility of various forms of urban usages versus each other.

The term resilience is derived from the Latin word "Resilio" which means “to return (or to bounce back) suddenly”. The concept of resilience has undergone many changes throughout the time. Although the existing interpretations for this term are complex and diverse, but what is certain is that there is a close relationship between disaster risk, resilience and the built environment. In this context, consideration of resilience as the ability to organize the threats posed by accidents as well as the ability to attract people and resistance against disasters- while still retaining essentially the same function - is particularly concerning. Thus, it can be concluded that the characteristic of returning to the situation that existed before the disturbance occurred, and also improving the situation, for further development of the system, is called resilience. By compatibility factor in planning, we mean the land use compatibility, which means that the use of lands that are within the sphere of influence of each other, should be consistent with each other in terms of compatibility, stability and activities and do not cause problems for one another or impede others from accomplishing their activities.

In this study, considering the proximity of urban usages relative to each other and using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the urban usage compatibility of district 4 in Tabriz was assessed. For this aim, first all urban usages in the study area were classified in 10 classes and the compatibility of each usage relative to other usages were studied. Then the usage layers were combined in GIS software by AHP model and finally, the compatibility map of urban usages for district 4 was obtained.

The results show that 5.9 % of the urban land usages in district 4 are totally incompatible with each other and 43.9 % of the urban usages are completely compatible with each other in the case of an earthquake. In general it can be said that most parts of the district 4 of Tabriz are in good condition in terms of the index of the urban land use compatibility and in case of an earthquake, less damage will be imposed on this area. Only the lands used for industries and workshops as well as municipal, administrative and military facilities are not in proper conditions in terms of the compatibility factor. So, on the basis of GIS-generated maps, because of incompatibility of industrial, municipal, administrative and military land uses, it is necessary to take effective measures in order to create a favorable environment in the city; because neglecting and disregarding the importance of the compatibility of these land uses can be dangerous for the surrounding area and it can increase the casualties caused by the earthquake in an area.