Identification of Fault Lineaments and Earthquake Hazard Zoning Using Remote Sensing and GIS: A Case Study of Rumeshkan County, Lorestan Province

As a natural hazard, earthquake has always caused destruction and loss of human life throughout history. Proper planning to prevent or reduce the destructive impact of earthquake hazard is of particular importance. In this study, to prevent and decrease the risk of this phenomenon, faults were detected and earthquake risk zoning was done in Rumeshkan County in Lorestan Province. For this purpose, first, the lineaments in the region were detected by using 2013 satellite images from Landsat 8 OLI sensors (row 37 and pass 166) and applying Directional Filters in ENVI software, as well as Lineament Extraction in Geomatica software. Afterwards, by comparing the lines with the constructed band combinations, the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and geological map of the study area were investigated, the faults were separated, and their map was prepared in the Geographic Information System (ArcGIS). In this study, by using expert judgment method and AHP-Fuzzy, the factors that affected the risk of earthquakes in Rumeshkan County, including distance from fault, slope, geomorphology, lithology, and distance from epicenters of past earthquakes were weighted and the seismic hazard map of the region was prepared. According to the obtained results, 31.8, 34.3, 10.3, 14.6, and 9.0% of the area were in very low, low, medium, high, and very high hazard classes, respectively. Examination of the earthquake hazard sensitivity map showed that the highest sensitivity to seismic hazard was in the eastern parts of the county and that the central parts had very low and low risks; thus, settlement of population in the latter areas is recommended.