Assessment of soil liquefaction potential has been widely investigated; however, no integrated method has compared the factors of vulnerability to soil liquefaction and resilience capacity between regions to assess the risk of soil liquefaction.
This study selects Yunlin and Chiayi county as a demonstration area, and uses Model Builder of geo-processing models to connect multiple analysis processes, the liquefaction risk distribution in Yun-Chia Plain's area is carried out in 100m × 100m grid map scale. The study results could provide the reference of land development and management in Taiwan.
For global environmental changing, the change of land use cause severely and straightforward impact (Lambin et al., 2001). The form of land use is determined by several of complex factors, such as politics, economics, society, culture and natural environment. However, if the change of land use is based on those complex factors, it will easily bring huge impact to the environment (Hasse and Lathrop, 2003).
Dilley et al. (2005) indicated that in disaster-prone areas worldwide, typhoons, flooding, landslides, and earthquakes are the most common natural hazards. The report showed that 73% of Taiwan's residents are living under the threat of three types of hazard; and 99% of people are living under two types of hazard. People living in Taiwan are exposed to high risk of natural hazard.
Uitto (1998) introduced three factors that are essential to disasters: hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. On this basis, risk management is a priority if natural disasters cannot be predicted or controlled. Reducing exposure and vulnerability is the first step. Chu (2010) noted that some studies have employed exposure in vulnerability analysis. For instance, the United Nations Development Program evaluated risk as hazard × exposure × vulnerability. A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2012) explained how vulnerability and exposure are assessed for potential disasters caused by climate change.
