Abstract:

The commonly encountered forms of mass movements, which are classified in various ways, in the world and in Turkey are landslides and rock falls. Various methods have been developed for the vulnerability evaluation of these kinds of movements. Among these methods, the most frequently used ones are the models involving the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This study aimed at evaluating the mass movement vulnerability of Antakya city via GIS and AHP. The significance of the study was that it was conducted within the borders of a densely-populated urban area where 10.423 people lived per square kilometer. The study made use of many data of various kinds obtained from different institutions. The ArcGIS/ArcMap 10.3 package, GIS software, was used for creating factor maps and making image analyses in the present study. A vulnerability map for the mass movements of Antakya city was obtained, and points vulnerable to mass movements in the urban area were determined. It was concluded that there was a low potential for mass movement formation in Antakya city. It was realized that 41% of the urban area had low (35%) and very low (6%) mass movement vulnerability. Those sites with low and very low vulnerability were observed along terraces, where there was low sloping, in the western side of the Asi River in the urban area. However, it should be noted that these sites are also under the risk of flood, overflow, and earthquake. Thus, necessary plans should be made according to the multi-risk map of the city by taking into consideration all possible natural disasters. Carried out by use of GIS based AHP method, the present study provided results consistent with the previous research findings. Thus, the study may be repeated in similar areas. Keywords: Mass movements, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Vulnerability map, Antakya city (Hatay).

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