Earthquake Vulnerability Assessment through Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis: A Case Study of Quetta City, Pakistan

Vulnerability assessment of an urban area to earthquake hazards is the requirement for attaining sustainable urban resilience. Quetta city is the capital of the province of Balochistan surrounded by mountains with the existence of many active faults. The main objective of the current study was to assess the earthquake vulnerability in Quetta valley. A total of 400 sample size was taken for the primary household survey. Secondary data was taken from the Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP), the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Data related to the socio-economic and structural components are performed in SPSS software and then transferred into the GIS environment to generate required maps. Whereas indicators related to hazard assessment like Peak Ground acceleration (PGA), Fault lines (FL), and Soil Type (ST) are performed in Arc-GIS to produce the expected maps and results. Analytical Hierarchal Process (AHP) & Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) methods are used to identify earthquake vulnerability. The results of the study reveal that Quetta is highly vulnerable to earthquake hazards in the future; its geology coupled with the human dimension indicates a more disastrous future in the next event. This research study has significant implications for urban planners and provides a risk reduction platform to reduce future earthquake losses and make Quetta city more resilient and sustainable.