A GIS-based urban vulnerability and emergency response research after an earthquake disaster

Abstract

Seismic disaster can cause severe damage to the urban system like infrastructure breakdown, residential isolation and corresponding secondary disasters. Dealing with the impact of these damages at the urban area requires a better understanding of city vulnerability and corresponding emergency management. Meanwhile, accurate damage simulation integrated with geographic information system is able to improve emergency response level. In this paper, Chaoyang district, a densely and populated region of Beijing, is studied as a scenario area. Falling debris from tall buildings is considered as one of the most destructive elements to the traffic, which can cause severe road blockage. In particular, risk-rating scheme is depicted by incorporating building vulnerability and city fire hazard. In order to optimize emergency transportation system for post-earthquake, a vehicle routing problem is developed to decrease the total travelling route for dispatching commodities. According to the problem's property, the Tabu search method based on heuristic algorithm is used. Furthermore, rescue from the inner city and exterior zone are discussed. For promoting emergency response, this study aims to give a brief description of the circumstance that may be encountered during and after seismic disaster.