A combination risk-based approach to post-earthquake temporary accommodation site selection: A case study in Iran

Abstract

One of the most important problems after natural disasters in every country is the preparation of temporary accommodations for victims. The developers of preventive plans are also faced with numerous uncertainties in this crisis management topic. Furthermore, uncertainty is not defined in classical mathematical sets. Therefore, the use of intuitionistic fuzzy sets, which include considerations for uncertainty, can be useful in prospective planning in order to counteract possible risks. The main aim of this study is to propose a combined method using risk management and Intuitionistic Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (IF-AHP) for locating and prioritizing the post-earthquake temporary accommodation sites. To this end, the city of Sanandaj in Iran was selected as the case study of this method. First, brainstorming sessions with 9 crisis management experts from various organizations of Kurdistan province were used to determine 6 decision-making criteria. These criteria were based on identified risks in temporary accommodation process after an earthquake in the region, and criteria extracted from previous studies regarding temporary accommodation locations. The possible alternatives for temporary accommodation sites in this study were 13 different urban public spaces. The pairwise comparison of criteria based on the aim and pairwise comparison of alternative temporary accommodation options based on each criterion was carried out by experts and using intuitionistic fuzzy sets. Finally, the IF-AHP process was used to determine the priority of each alternative.