A novel approach of multi-hazard integrated zonation on the ancient Silk Road

Hazard identification is crucial for disaster risk reduction in areas featuring multiple co-occurring hazards and active internal and external dynamic geographical processes. Coupling the elements of external hazard-forming environments and the internal mechanisms inducing hazards, a novel multi-hazard integration zonation (MIZ) method has been developed in which a segmented multi-hazard identification function was constructed to identify the dominant hazard types and their boundaries in a region. Taking the ancient Silk Road as a case study, the major types and spatial zonation of multiple hazards have been identified, which are in accordance with the ac-tual disaster situation. These sympatric multiple hazards present a widely spatial scattered distri-bution of individual hazards and a more concentrated distribution of multiple hazards in the an-cient Silk Road area. These results, combined with the geomorphological features and the cli-matic zones of the analyzed area, reveal the spatial boundaries among these major hazards at the macro-and microscales. These findings suggest that the proposed MIZ methodology can provide scientific support for rational engineering layouts and regional planning and may serve as perti-nent guidance for multi-hazard identification in ancient Silk Road area and beyond.