EGU21-7822, updated on 04 Mar 2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-7822
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Evacuation shelter suitability modeling under combined geo-hydrological hazards in Western Ghat region, India

Somnath Bera1 and Kaushal Raj Gnyawali2
Somnath Bera and Kaushal Raj Gnyawali
  • 1Centre for Geoinformatics, Jamsetji Tata school of Disaster Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India (bera.somnath2007@gmail.com)
  • 2Natural Hazards Section, Himalayan Risk Research Institute, 44600, Bhaktapur, Nepal (gnyawalikr@hri.org.np)

Geo-hydrological hazards like floods and landslides are common in mountain regions. During a disaster, evacuation shelters become a primary need of people. We develop a model to find suitable locations for emergency shelters in flood and landslide strikes in a rural mountain setting of the Western Ghat region, India. Firstly, susceptibility maps for flood and landslide hazards are prepared using a machine learning (Random forest) algorithm. Then location suitability modeling is done in GIS using the entropy method. The following entropy evolution factors are considered- flood susceptibility, landslide susceptibility, land use, distance from the road, distance from the hospital, distance from the market, distance from the fire station, distance from safe water sources, and the population of settlement cluster area. Model constraining factors like steep slope, high landslide, flood susceptible area, and protected area are accounted for using a cost matrix. The model is compared with community-based suitability mapping and evacuation centers during the past disaster of 2005. The study will contribute towards better disaster-resilient planning of rural mountainous settlements.

Keywords: Evacuation shelter, landslide, flood, random forest, entropy method, GIS

How to cite: Bera, S. and Gnyawali, K. R.: Evacuation shelter suitability modeling under combined geo-hydrological hazards in Western Ghat region, India, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-7822, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-7822, 2021.

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