Urban vulnerability zoning with passive defense approach and VIKOR modeling, Case study: Ahvaz metropolitan area

Each city’s environment and geographic location express the kind of human relationship amongst the citizens. The geographic location of the city which accomodates its infrastructure could be an impairment by itself. Therefore, the spatial distribution of elements, their combination, and the main functions of the city, which form the city's structure, play an important role in the vulnerability of the city to various calamities, particularly threats. Therefore, based on the necessity, the subject of this research which has a developmental-applied nature is to study the passive defense approach in the socio-physical pathology of Ahwaz city using the VIKOR model. It should be noted that this study incorporates a combination of research approaches namely, analytical and descriptive methods, and field and library researches for data preparation, extraction and analysis. The results obtained by VIKOR show the average value of urban crisis vulnerability of Ahwaz to be (0.30)%, the highest and lowest values being (0.97)% and (0.007)% respectively belonging to the area named as Zone 2 of Ahwaz city. City management and urban development are essential for the safety of the city because different locations in the city have different resistance and strength in case of any crisis.