Determination of Temporary Accommodation Areas in Earthquake via MCDM and GIS

Abstract

Disaster is a natural or man-made event that adversely affects the individual or society materially and morally. In order to minimize the damage caused by the disaster and its consequences, it is of vital importance to plan the evacuation of the disaster victims and transport them to safe areas. In this study, temporary accommodation areas for Kocaeli province of Turkey, which experienced a significant earthquake in 1999, were evaluated. Selection and prioritization of the most suitable temporary accommodation areas will be made with Geographic information System (GIS)-based Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Analysis (MCDM). For this purpose, 7 different evaluation criteria were determined by taking literature research and expert opinions. The criteria weights were determined by the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). GIS-based analyses were performed using ArcGIS 10.7 software. The obtained raster maps were classified on the same scale and scored. The maps were combined with the overlap analysis and the most suitable temporary accommodation areas for Kocaeli were determined by manual processes. © Authors: All rights reserved, 2023.