Located in the circum -Pacific seism iczone, Taiwan is characterized geomorphically by steep mountains and rapid waters and climatically by frequent typhoons and pouring rain, making landslides and debris flows the most common geologic hazards in Taiwan's hillside regions that boast a total area of 2,630,000 hectares or 73% of the island's entire area. The rapid increase in population in recent years has prom pted people to develop hillside land. However, over-developm ent of slope areas may bring about drasticim pacts, damaging local ecological systems at the least and causing geologic disasters at its worst. This research accordingly aims at analyzing potential hazards of hillside areas around Taipei using Geographic Information System (GIS). Collection and review of related data help us identify eleven items, such as rainfall and soil types, as the major indexes to estimate potential dangers of hillside areas surrounding Taipei. Then, weuse the geovisualization softwareo Google Earth as the GIS platform to display the findings about disaster potential of hillside areas around Taipei. Results of our study can be expect ed to provide related governm ent agencies with useful references in decision making.
展开▼
