Geospatial mapping of Tsunami susceptibility of Karachi to Gwadar coastal area of Pakistan
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Geospatial mapping of Tsunami susceptibility of Karachi to Gwadar coastal area of Pakistan Bilal Aslam 1 & Sharjeel Ismail 2 & Ahsen Maqsoom 2 Received: 21 October 2017 / Accepted: 20 August 2020 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2020
Abstract The coastal area holds great importance as it sustains a large number of people in addition to various bio-networks that have economic as well as biological significance. However, these may be prone to environmental calamities such as tsunamis. In the coastal areas of Pakistan, numerous earthquakes have been triggered by the tectonic movement under the Indian Ocean. Karachi and Gwadar cities being the economic hub of the country is at the potential risk of tsunamis; therefore, multi-criteria GIS mapping of tsunami susceptibility has been conducted in this paper for the Karachi to Gwadar, the coastal area of Pakistan. This study includes many geospatial variables such as coastal proximity and shape, topographic elevation and slope, and topography relative to the direction of the tsunami. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is exercised to develop an order of weights for each geospatial variable. For the potential tsunami risk, a land use map of coastal area of Pakistan is overlaid on the tsunami susceptibility map, and the final output map has shown that residential buildings, commercial complexes, and agricultural areas are vulnerable to destruction. Studies involving GIS are helpful in the evaluation of disaster, thereby aiding in the acceleration of local forecasting for the management of natural catastrophes like tsunamis. Tsunami susceptibility map presented in this paper seeks to support the evidence of the occurrence of the tsunami and the efforts directed towards the management of tsunami in the coastal areas of Pakistan. Keywords Tectonic movement . Earthquakes . Tsunamis . Geographical information system (GIS) . Analytic hierarchy process (AHP)
Introduction Coastal zones comprise about 4% of the earth’s surface and consist of about one-third of the world’s population. Conferring to an estimate of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), World Conservation Responsible Editor: Amjad Kallel * Bilal Aslam [email protected] Sharjeel Ismail [email protected] Ahsen Maqsoom [email protected] 1
Department of Data Science, Riphah International University, Islamabad, Pakistan
2
Department of Civil Engineering, COMSATS University Islamabad Wah Campus, Wah Cantt, Pakistan
Monitoring Centre, published in 2006, within fifteen years, the coastal zones are anticipated to have a double amount of population (Jaffe and Gelfenbuam 2009; Wijetunge 2009). Additionally, the coastal areas of the world have diverse ecologies of high biotic and fiscal significance. It is because coastal areas contain mangrove forests, lagoons, seagrass beds, coral reefs, dunes, and other coastal vegetation (Srinivasalu et al. 2007; Yan and Tang 2009). This ecosystem might be exposed to natural disasters like tsunamis. The ongoing seismic activity might affect Pakis
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