AUTHOR=Wang Ziyue , Cheng Jia , Xu Chong 

TITLE=Earthquake scenario-specific framework for spatial accessibility analysis (SAA) of emergency shelters: a case study in Xichang City, Sichuan Province, China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Earth Science

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/earth-science/articles/10.3389/feart.2024.1376900

DOI=10.3389/feart.2024.1376900

ISSN=2296-6463

ABSTRACT=The spatial accessibility to emergency shelters, indicating the difficulty of evacuation and rescue, is crucial for disaster mitigation and emergency management. To analyze accessibility, evaluating the service capacity of emergency shelters is an effective approach. Multifaceted factors were employed to enhance the quantitative accuracy of accessibility indicators. However, scenario-specific analysis has not been emphasized. Considering the devastating damage, such as great earthquake disasters, we cannot ignore the impact of these scenarios on emergency shelter accessibility, especially in areas with high seismic risk.In this study, we developed an earthquake scenario-specific framework for Spatial Accessibility Analysis (SAA), which integrates the service capacity of emergency shelters and the impact of strong ground motion and fault rupturing. We applied this framework to the urban area of Xichang City in Sichuan Province, western China. The Xichang City, located in the linked area of the Anninghe Fault and Zemuhe Fault with many extreme historical earthquake disaster records, is prone to high seismic risks.First, we collected the emergency shelters and extracted the road network data in the urban Xichang City. Then, we operated the SAA based on the road network using the network analysis method.After that, we analyzed the impact of strong ground motion on accessibility and generated the setback zone of fault rupturing. We integrated the accessibility affected by the strong ground motion into the accessibility within the setback zone of active faults. Finally, we got the comprehensive accessibility map considering both the predicted strong ground motion and potential fault rupturing.Our results show that the accessibility level changed in several towns of urban Xichang City due to the strong ground motion and fault rupturing. The accessibility level decreased in Lizhou Town, Xingsheng Town, and Anning Town. For the areas with mapped fault lines, the accessibility level is 2,