The Prevalence of Urban Areas Vulnerability to Seismic Risk (A Case Study of Region One, Tehran)

Urban planning rules and considering land use regarding faults can change the consequences of natural hazard such as earthquake. Vulnerability risk is increasing in Region 1 because of existence of the north fault, steep slopes and continuous construction of high-rise buildings. It is clear that Region 1’s Master Plan shouldn’t be prepared without considering natural hazard such as earthquake. This study targets two main goals, first, to assess the degree of land use vulnerability to seismic risk and second, to classify areas based on their vulnerability degree. Nine indicators were extracted from previous studies to analyze the vulnerability of land use in Master Plan of Region 1, Tehran. According to different features of each indicator a score from 1 to 4 was allocated for each feature. The vulnerability degree of 181 areas were shown using Categorical Principle Component Analysis (CATPCA) in which areas were divided into four categories and the final result was visualized. The main results of this study showed that more about 50% of the areas were located in the highly-at-risk region. It was concluded that increase in the building density, number of floors, and distance from open spaces would be resulted in higher risk of earthquake damage. The major practical contribution of the present research was that it provided evidence to show that much focus required on reconsidering seismic risk in the future plans.