Integrated Flood Risk Assessment System Based on the Set Pair Analysis and Variable Fuzzy Sets for Cascade Dams

Flood-caused dam break is an important dam safety problem. Dam flood risk assessment based on an appropriate assessing method is hence essential for reducing dam-break flood damages and losses. In this research, a comprehensive flood risk assessment system for cascade dams was developed by combining the set pair analysis (SPA) and variable fuzzy sets (VFS) theory (namely SPA-VFS for short), and expressing the flood risk as a product of hazard and vulnerability, which were quantified by selected indicators. In the case study of the Dadu river basin, reservoir capacity, dam height, dam age, gross domestic product (GDP) density, population density, and predicted damage were selected as the evaluation indicators, and the evaluation results derived the flood risk classes of each studied dam. The study indicates that the proposed SPA-VFS-based flood risk assessment model is simple and feasible, which enables its further application in flood risk analysis and evaluation, and its extension in the risk assessment of other natural disasters.

Using Multiple Index Comprehensive Method to Assess Urban Rainstorm Disaster Risk in Jiangsu Province, China

An integrated index system for urban rainstorm risk evaluation has been developed. Meanwhile, an information diffusion method (IDM) and variable fuzzy sets (VFSs) were employed to evaluate the dangerousness, sensitivity, and vulnerability risk of urban rainstorm disasters, respectively. Then, the comprehensive risk zoning map was drawn. Finally, Jiangsu Province has been taken as a case study area. Due to heavy rainfall in short-term and low rainstorm resistance ability, Wuxi, Changzhou, Nanjing, and Suzhou have higher dangerousness while Wuxi, Changzhou, and Nanjing have higher sensitivity. And because of potential losses in urban rainstorm disaster, Wuxi and Suzhou have higher vulnerability than other cities. The comprehensive risk zoning map showed that most cities of Jiangsu Province are at the moderate risk level, and the northwestern cities have lower risk level than the southern cities. The results are consistent with the actual situation of Jiangsu Province, and the study can provide some decision-making references for the urban rainstorm management.

Evaluation of Dam Break Social Impact Assessments Based on an Improved Variable Fuzzy Set Model

In recent years attention has shifted from “dam safety” to “dam risk” due to the high loss characteristics of dam breaks. Despite this, there has been little research on social impact assessments. Variable fuzzy sets (VFSs) are a theoretical system for dealing with uncertainty that are used in many industries. However, the relative membership degree (RMD) calculations required for VFSs are complicated and data can be overlooked. Furthermore, the RMD is highly subjective when dealing with qualitative problems, which can seriously affect the accuracy of the results. This study introduces grey system theory (GST) which analyzes the RMD characteristics to improve traditional VFSs. A new method for calculating the social impact of a dam break is proposed based on the correlation between the core parameters of the two theories. The Liujiatai Reservoir is used as a test case and the new and traditional evaluation methods are compared. The results show that the proposed method has advantages when dealing with uncertainty that are consistent with the characteristics of the problems associated with dam break social impact assessments. Moreover, the evaluation results obtained using the proposed method are consistent with, or more accurate than, those obtained using the traditional method.

Comprehensive Prediction and Discriminant Model for Rockburst Intensity Based on Improved Variable Fuzzy Sets Approach

Rockburst intensity prediction is one of the basic works of underground engineering disaster prevention and mitigation. Considering the dynamic variability and fuzziness in rockburst intensity prediction, variable fuzzy sets (VFS) are selected for evaluation and prediction. Here, there are two problems in the application of traditional VFS: (i) the relative membership degree (RMD) calculation process is complex and time-consuming, and the RMD matrix of all indexes can be only obtained by using the RMD function repeatedly; (ii) unreasonable weights of indicators have great impact on the synthetic relative membership degree (SRMD), so it is difficult to guarantee the correctness of the final prediction result. In view of the above problem, this paper established three simplified feature relationship expressions of RMD based on VFS principle and used the SRMD function to establish a BP neural network model to optimize SRMD. The improved VFS method is more efficient and the prediction results are more stable and reliable than the traditional VFS method. The main advantages are as follows: (1) the improved VFS method has higher computational efficiency; (2) the improved VFS method can verify the correctness of RMD at all times; (3) the improved VFS method has higher prediction accuracy; and (4) the improved VFS method has higher fault tolerance and practicability.

Using Multiple Index Comprehensive Method to Assess Urban Rainstorm Disasters Risk in Jiangsu Province, China

A new model for risk assessment of urban rainstorm disasters, based on information diffusion method and variable fuzzy sets (IDM-VFS) was proposed. In addition, an integrated index system of urban rainstorm risk was established. In the proposed model, IDM was employed to calculate the classification standards of urban rainstorm risk levels, then the VFS was adopted to assess the dangerousness, sensitivity, vulnerability and comprehensive risk of urban rainstorm disasters. In the present study, the urban rainstorm risk of Jiangsu province was evaluated with the proposed model. The results show that Wuxi, Changzhou, Nanjing and Suzhou have higher dangerousness, due to sustained rainfall and strong rainfall intensity in short duration; Wuxi, Changzhou and Nanjing have higher sensitivity because of lower disaster resistance ability; and Wuxi and Suzhou have higher vulnerability because these cities have higher potential losses in face of urban rainstorm disasters. The comprehensive risk zoning map of urban rainstorm shows apparent regional characteristics: the northwestern cities have lower risk than the southern cities. Moreover, most cities of the Jiangsu province are of the moderate urban rainstorm risk level. The results are consistent with the actual situation of Jiangsu province, and the study can provide some decision-making references for the urban rainstorm management.