Optimal site selection for temporary housing after earthquakes (Case study: Mahabad city)

One of the most important challenges in disaster management is site selection for temporary housing to be used by the people affected by disasters. Despite numerous studies in literature, the number of parameters considered in several studies on one hand and failure to provide a comprehensive and applicable method including all effective parameters studied in previous studies on the other hand, providing a comprehensive study to select an optimal place for optimal site selection for temporary housing before the disaster happened is necessary for all cities of Iran. Geographic Information System (GIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) are useful tools for this purpose. In this research, in an integrated study, the most important parameters in optimal site selection for temporary housing after earthquakes in urban areas has been considered in 4 indexes including geotechnical, urban planning, distance to dangerous facilities and distance to needed facilities. These four indexes with their parameters have been weighted using AHP. Then in GIS environment, the possible places for temporary housing are ranked and determined in terms of priority. According to the results, the best place for temporary housing has been presented for Mahabad city in West-Azarbayjan province. The results indicated that indices of distance to dangerous facilities and distance to needed facilities are more important than the other indices in the optimal location for temporary housing after earthquakes. In addition, a lack of proper distribution of the open spaces and lack of adequate open spaces such as parks in the mahabad city are challenging.