Assessing urban vulnerability to landslides using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP): Case study of the municipal head of Djebahia in Algeria

Abstract

Djebahia is an average city in the Algerian centre, reported to have many risks related to landslides, with very important indices of instabilities. The recurrence of damaging events in this locality has shown the fragility of its urban system. The main objective of this article is to analyse the urban vulnerability in Djebahia municipality by determining the physical condition of its urban structure. The procedures for the analysis of factors at the origin of the risk in this city are mainly derived from the spatial analysis program, represented by the geographic information system software (ARCMAP), which contains a set of tools facilitating the process analysis. The present research was based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) of Thomas Laurie Saaty (1990), which belongs to a series of multi-criteria approaches. The analysis showed three levels of urban vulnerability: high, medium, and low, while the elements most affected by landslides are equipment, collective, and individual housing. These results were translated into a map of urban vulnerability to landslide risk.