Background: The study of population change indicates that population growth is likely to continue the next quarter century. In addition, many settlements are located in high risk areas. In this study, the province of Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari was evaluated based on two key factors analyzing in recent years: the seismic vulnerability of settlements and roads.
Methods: In this research, the earthquake risk zonation was performed by using IDW method (Inverse Distance Weighting), GIS and seismic data in order to evaluate settlements and roads in Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari province. In this analytical-descriptive study, the fault condition was measured by using the neighborhood function.
Findings: Considering the high potential of active faults, it is essential to define safe bounds next to the faults. These guidance lines are applicable in urban planning, disaster management, geo sciences in preventing the direct interruption of active faults.Total of 7 cities and 58 villages exposed to the direct risk of faults interruption; also about 1,072,590 km of roads have a very high vulnerability to the faults interruption in the province based on the vulnerable distance to the faults.
Conclusion: The results indicate that there is high density of rural settlements and roads in western and northwestern areas; however, however eastern settlements are larger, dispersed and low in number. The progressive development of roads and settlements has significantly increased the potential seismic risk.