Multihazard susceptibility assessment: A case study – Municipality of Štrpce (Southern Serbia)

Abstract

The municipality of Štrpce (Southern Serbia) is an area located within Šar Mountain National Park, which is of great ecological importance. Due to the vicinity of settlements, it is necessary to analyze the terrain's susceptibility to natural hazards. The main goal of this research was to determine locations that are highly vulnerable at times of natural hazards (such as earthquakes, erosion, torrential flooding, snow avalanches, and forest fires). The first step in this research was to analyze seismic hazards for a 475 years return period (VII–VIII MCS for the observed area), which was possible by means of Geographic Information Systems. The second step was to determine the intensity of erosion and total sediment production using the Erosion Potential Model. The third step was related to the analysis of the potential of torrential floods using the Flash Flood Potential Index. The Avalanches Potential Index method was used as the fourth step. The fifth step included the analysis of a terrain susceptibility to the occurrence of forest fires. Following the five criteria analysis, weight coefficients were assigned to each of the analyzed parameters by using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which provided results of the total susceptibility to natural hazards of the territory of Štrpce. Results indicated that over 45% of the municipality is highly or very highly susceptible to various natural hazards. This article represents a significant step toward a better understanding of natural hazards and it provides a unique knowledge basis for establishing the management and mitigation guidelines and measures, not only within the researched area but at regional and national levels as well.

Riverbank Erosion & Consequent Land Settlement Issues: A Case of River Chenab, District Hafizabad

“…This shows that the average riverbank displacement due to erosion phenomenon at this location was 12.1m/month and 4.4m/month during 2013-16 and 2016-19, respectively. The victims face economic, social and health insecurities and make families' life more vulnerable [20], however, regular monitoring of riverbank erosion values and soil degradation can help to foresee the situation [21]. Families settled along the riverbank used to face many problems in their daily life due to issues like frequent floods and riverbank erosion [22].…”

GIS application in analysis of threat of forest fires and landslides in the Svrljiski Timok basin (Serbia)

“…Тренд шумских пожара у Србији и Европи се у последњих неколико деценија повећава. Садејство повећане глобалне температуре ваздуха и људских активности узрокује пораст броја шумских пожара (Lukić et al, 2017;Durlević et al, 2021). Интензивни топлотни таласи у Србији забележени су током 2007. и 2012. године, када је више од 1000 пожара угрозило људске животе, инфраструктуру и шумске екосистеме.…”

“…The territory of the Republic of Serbia is endangered by various natural disasters: earthquakes, landslides, avalanches, torrential floods, droughts and forest fires. The consequences of natural disasters can be significant for the population in human and material terms (Blaikie et al, 2014;Novković et al, 2021;Sirin & Medvedeva, 2022;Singh et al, 2022). The occurrence and distribution of forest fires is connected to their seasonal and time correlation (Kim et al, 2021).…”

“…The trend of forest fires in Serbia and Europe has been increasing in the last couple of decades. The combined effect of rising global air temperature and human activities is causing increase in the number of forest fires (Lukić et al, 2017;Durlević et al, 2021). Intense heat waves in Serbia were recorded during 2007 and 2012, when more than 1000 fires threatened human lives, infrastructure and forest ecosystems.…”

Geospatial assessment of vegetation condition pre-wildfire and post-wildfire on Luštica (Montenegro) using differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) index

“…The spatial component in firefighting plays a significant role in management. In this context, Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) come to the fore, which analyze spatial data and turn it into useful information -models applied in practice (Valjarević & Ţivković, 2016;Jovanović et al, 2018;Potić & Šimunić, 2019;Milanović et al, 2009Milanović et al, , 2016Milanović et al, , 2019Milanović et al, , 2020Šiljeg et al, 2017Artan & Spalević, 2020Durlević et al, 2021;Ćurić et al, 2022).…”