COMPARATIVE METHODS FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE NATURAL RISK FACTORS’ IMPORTANCE

Among the methods for the evaluation of natural and anthropic risks, those of the questionnaire and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) allow evidencing the exposure degree to hazards and also the assessment of factor weights in human communities’ degree of vulnerability. In the present study, the two methods have been applied in the analysis of the territory of Lep a-Gre u Depression, located in Vrancea Mountains from the Eastern Carpathians, potentially threatened by different risk phenomena, such as heavy rains, flash floods, landslides and earthquakes. The application of the questionnaire revealed a weak and diffuse perception on the risk phenomena among the population and also correlations and variations in risk perception caused by several factors, such as age and socio-economic status. AHP allowed to obtain the preference weights of the four analyzed factors in the vulnerability of the region, evidencing the higher importance of the “floods” factor in comparison to the others, and as a consequence the necessity or reorienting the efforts of developing practices and projects of risk reduction in the region