Multiple geo-environmental hazards susceptibility assessment: a case study in Luoning County, Henan Province, China

Abstract

It is of great significance to conduct an assessment of the susceptibility of certain area to geo-environmental hazards that are intended land-use planning, for hazard prevention. This study first evaluated the four geo-environmental hazards susceptibility in Luoning County using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Then, Barrel Principle was used to render a comprehensive hazard susceptibility map, reflecting the stability level of the regional geo-environment. Results showed that the geo-environmental hazards susceptibility area can be graded into four levels, including high-susceptibility, moderate-susceptibility, low-susceptibility, and stable, accounting for 25.3%, 44.8%, 26.5%, and 3.4% of the study area, respectively. Success rate curve was applied to validate the accuracy of the single-hazard susceptibility map produced using the AHP. The results showed that the landslide, rockfall, and goaf collapse susceptibility maps had a success rate of 83.28%, 77.07%, and 85.19%, respectively. Therefore, the single susceptibility map can be helpful for hazard assessment and land-use planning. Finally, a comprehensive susceptibility map was used to select areas of priority for urban development and prevent and mitigate natural hazards that occur.

Keywords:

• Multi-hazard
• susceptibility
• analytic hierarchy process
• Barrel Principle
• Land use

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the Institute of Henan Geological Survey and Ministry of Land and Resources of PRC for their help and data. Also, the authors would like to express their gratitude to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions, which highly increased the quality of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.