Vulnerability assessment of geo-hazards in southwest mountainous area—Danba County, Sichuan, China as an example.

In this paper, we′ve conducted an in-depth and systematic research on the vulnerability assessment of geo-hazards in southwest mountainous towns with typical and representative selection of Danba County town in Sichuan Province as a key case study. According to characteristics of southwest mountainous towns, this paper put forward the investigation methods of geo-hazards affected objects in southwest mountainous towns, and established index system and model of vulnerability assessment of geo-hazards in large scale, meanwhile, the paper introduced the method of assessing vulnerability based on the ILWIS software. Vulnerability assessment results indicated that the higher vulnerability areas in Danba County town were primary schools, residential quarters and other places in which there was dense population and prosperous material economic value. Area with very low vulnerability (value between 0-0.25) accounts for 96.48% of the total study area. Area with low vulnerability (value between 0.25-0.50) accounts for 3.21% of the total study area. Area with moderate vulnerability (value between 0.50-0.75) accounts for 0.29% of the total study area. Area with high vulnerability (value between 0.75-1) only accounts for 0.02% of the total study area.