Rapid urbanization, increasing hazard risks, and the growing impacts of climate change have made the identification of safe and sustainable settlement areas a critical challenge for urban planning, particularly in seismically active regions. This study aims to delineate suitable areas for future urban settlements in the aftermath of the 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes. It employs the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) integrated with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to conduct multi-hazard susceptibility and bioclimatic comfort analyses. Within this framework, earthquake, flood, and landslide susceptibilities were assessed using the Multi-Hazard Susceptibility Model (MHSM), while thermal comfort maps were generated through the Bioclimatic Comfort Model (BCM) by incorporating temperature, humidity, and wind parameters. The MHSM was validated using data from approximately 14,000 collapsed buildings, along with flood and landslide records across the study area. The Suitable Settlement Area Model (SSAM) was developed through a comprehensive multi-criteria evaluation that integrates hazard susceptibility, bioclimatic comfort, topographic conditions, agricultural land conservation, and construction costs. The results indicate that 32.5% and 38.3% of the province are classified as highly suitable and suitable for settlement, respectively. The findings provide valuable insights for disaster risk management, sustainable urban planning, and the development of resilient settlement patterns. Overall, the study demonstrates that the integration of multi-criteria GIS and AHP-based approaches significantly enhances settlement suitability assessments by effectively combining hazard risk analysis with bioclimatic suitability mapping.
Doğruluk et al. (Fri,) studied this question.