Assessing the vulnerability of urban areas to earthquake crises (Case study: Varzeqan city neighborhoods)

The risk of an earthquake always overshadows human societies and causes irreparable damage to them, so be prepared to deal with this crisis by identifying vulnerabilities and addressing them to reduce the damage. It is affected by earthquakes. In this regard, the present study examined the physical vulnerability of the neighborhoods of Varzeqan city concerning the 14 indicators affecting the vulnerability to earthquakes. The research method is descriptive-analytical, which has been done using spatial layers related to the mentioned indicators. To analyze and overlap the layers, the MAP ALGEBRA (RASTER CALCULATOR) method has been used in the GIS software environment. ANP method was used to weigh the layers. The results showed that a significant percentage of the city of Varzeqan is located in high and very high vulnerability classes. Even more than 70 percent of neighborhoods, such as Boubl Cheshmehsi, are in a highly vulnerable class. Considering the seismic vulnerability zoning of the city and the distribution of vulnerable classes in the city neighborhoods, it can be concluded that the whole area of Varzeqan city is more vulnerable to the occurrence of earthquakes. In neighborhoods with low and very low vulnerability classes, a significant area of the city, barren land uses, open spaces, agriculture, and green spaces occupy a significant percentage of the neighborhood space, and as a result, They have low earthquake resistance.