Zoning areas susceptible to land subsidence in Tigris and euphrates basins

Abstract EN

Land Subsidence is considered as one of the riskiest hazards in nature and geology.

It may be caused by human activities including but not limited to long-term depletion of water, petroleum, and gas from underground reservoirs.

Monitoring and zoning of regions susceptible to land-subsidence within Tigris and Euphrates rivers basin can play a major role in predicting and preventing damages from subsidence and can aid in better planning for utilizing its water resources.

Accordingly, this study proposed to employ 9 effective parameters on subsidence including: precipitation, total water underground changes, elevation, slope, population, land use, distance from petroleum and gas fields, distance from faults, and distance from rivers.

Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method was applied for analyzing relationships between parameters.

Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process and Boolean methods were combined to produce zoning maps of Tigris and Euphrates basin subsidence.

The results were indicative of the high potential of subsidence in zones contributing to 1.39% of the total area of the Tigris and Euphrates basin.

Interparameter analysis by using of Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory indicated that land cover, total water underground changes, and population were the most impressible factors in land subsidence zoning, respectively.