RESILIENT CAPACITY ASSESSMENT FOR
GEOLOGICAL FAILURE AREAS - EXAMPLES
FROM COMMUNITIES AFFECTED BY DEBRIS
FLOW DISASTER
Su-Chin Chen*, Chun-Yi Wua, Ting-Yeh Wua
* Professor and chairman, Department of Soil and Water Conservation, National
Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan
Phone: +886-4-22852411
Fax: +886-4-22853967
Email: scchen@nchu.edu.tw
a
Department of Soil and Water Conservation, National Chung-Hsing University,
Taichung 402, Taiwan
Original Article
Abstract
This study establishes a novel method for assessing the community resilient capacity of
debris flow disasters with appropriate parameters, such as responding, monitoring and communication
capabilities. This study adopts eight communities in Taiwan, namely Nangang, Tongfu, Jhongyang,
Laiyuan, Chingfu, Sinsheng, Shangan and Jyunkeng, as examples. First, the Analytic Hierarchy
Process was applied to establish the framework of the community resiliency capacity, including the
community’s resources for disaster resilience and resident capabilities. The community’s resources for
disaster resilience are identified by surveying the community leaders via checklists. Resident
capabilities are determined using questionnaires. The community resilient capacity refers to the sum of
the results from these two investigations. The two investigations have similar weights, indicating that
they are equally significant when evaluating community resilient capacity. Second, FLO-2D software
is utilized for hazard analysis by simulation results of deposited areas for debris flows, and then these
areas were categorized according to hazard degrees. Finally, the vulnerability of communities is
classified based on the land use type. In summary, the values of capacity, hazard and vulnerability are
integrated to determine the risk of debris flow for each community. A risk map is then generated.
Keywords hazard analysis, vulnerability, resilient capacity, risk assessment, Taiwan