The role of land use patterns in earthquake resilience: a case study of the Ahvaz Manba Ab neighborhood

Urban resilience to natural disasters has constantly been a challenge to sustainable development in human societies. Since Iran is always exposed to natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, it is necessary to address novel approaches to deal with these disasters. The use of urban land and its characteristics in each city is one of the most important indicators related to urban resilience. The Manba Ab neighborhood is one of the most disorderly neighborhoods in Ahvaz city. Considering human perspective (inappropriate social construction), natural (adjacent to the only fault of Ahvaz city and the presence of unevenness in the area), physical and the built environment (improper proportions of land uses and road network; the proximity to large-scale industrial land uses) the city has an unsustainable condition that makes the resilience improvements in the area inevitable. This research aims to assess the resilience of the Manba Ab neighborhood against one of the most critical disasters, namely earthquakes. The paper is an applied descriptive-analytical, and collected data are analyzed in the GIS using algorithms in the ANP model, and Super Decision software. Obtained results show that about 45% of the Manba Ab neighborhood have low resilience against earthquakes due to fine-grained fabrics, low width of the passages, unsuitable building skeleton, deficiency in urban green spaces, and deficiency in relief services land uses. In this regard, land use planning is an essential tool in promoting earthquake resilience in neighborhoods. Identifying vulnerable areas of neighborhoods and reducing factors of neighborhood vulnerability can be very effective in earthquake resilience.