Social Vulnerability Evaluation for Ankang City, China, using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process Method

Abstract A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process based model was proposed and evaluated for social vulnerability assessment using a case study. The evaluation process is formulated as a multiple criteria decision making problem under uncertainty, where the subjective and imprecise judgements of multiple decision makers are represented as fuzzy numbers. Based on factors extracted from literature review, the researchers determined the factor weights and calculated social vulnerability scores for each county (district) using the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process method. The researchers demonstrated how the social vulnerability scores of counties (districts) and factor weights change under different uncertainties via sensitivity analysis. The results were comparted with data produced by conventional Analytic Hierarchy Process to test performance of the proposed method. The results show social vulnerability of each county (district) in Ankang City, implying the Urban-Rural Gap exist in current Chinese disaster management system. Most important sub-factors contributing to social vulnerability were also highlighted according to the results on factor weights.

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