Urban Land Use Evaluation Based On Earthquake Risks

Many megacities in the world are located in highly seismically active regions, including Tehran, the national capital of IRAN. Technical and historical studies shows that ruinous earthquakes across the REI fault have lead to casualties and critical damages. Therefore the safety of human settlements and environmental risk factor analysis from the view of land use planning is an important issue in such urban prone areas. This research aimed to find out how land use planning can be applied as long term proactive approach in reducing the seismic vulnerability of seismically challenged cities as Tehran. Hence by the use of RADIUS, software for hazard evaluation and damage assessment, and geographical information system (GIS), urban land use in case study (region 20, district 4 of Tehran municipality) was evaluated with regard to earthquake risks and suggestions as cohering approach in seismically challenged magecities were presented. By selecting earthquake scenario, earthquake risks evaluation can be conducted. In this research, parameters of scenarios selected according to geological studies and historical records.