Regional risk assessment for urban major hazards based on GIS geoprocessing to improve public safety

Regional risk assessment for urban major hazards is significant for environment protection and public safety. In practice, repeating geoprocessing steps required in risk mapping process is quite timeconsuming, and it has been a challenge for both researchers and managers. In this study, we designed and implemented a tool for facilitating the process of urban regional risk assessment. Geoprocessing workflow models are built for severity calculation, vulnerability evaluation and risk mapping respectively. We then integrate these models into an automatic GIS tool, and apply it in a typical urban district of north China to demonstrate its functionalities and utility. The risk map successfully obtained shows that it has potential to be a useful decision support tool for guiding emergency management and urban planning. This work offers new insights and valuable demonstration on promoting future risk assessment with the use of emerging GIS geoprocessing technology in the Big Geo-Data age. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.