Land suitability assessment for disaster-prone villages relocation

Lessons learnt from 921 Jiji Earthquake's recovery, suitable relocation sites are critical to land planning institutions to implement disaster recovery plans and to propose creative solutions to address unforeseen difficulties quickly. It is the time matter in disaster recovery and reconstruction management that the longer it takes, the higher uncertainty it becomes, resulting in lengthy, complex relocation processes. A virtual relocation land reserve system is suggested that site alternatives for relocation are pre-prepared through a land suitability assessment. To this end, the concept and advanced GIS techniques of disaster risk management were applied to disaster-prone village identification and the land suitability analysis for safety relocation land assessment. The article first created disaster risk maps of Taiwan to see the distribution of the disaster-prone village, in which disaster hazardousness and vulnerability were discussed. The relocation projects of 921 Jiji Earthquake were also reviewed and concluded that there are six key factors for successful relocations, which are land regulations, location safety, financial feasibility, social and cultural connections, economic vitality, and awareness and willingness of community. The factors were further developed into criteria and were used in the land suitability analysis of relocation site assessment for disaster-prone areas.