Assessment and zoning of lightning disaster-causing hazards in Anhui Province based on GIS

The assessment of lightning disaster-causing hazards is the key to risk survey of lightning disasters. Following the technical route of the national meteorological disasters comprehensive risk survey since 2020, and based on the lightning location data from 2010 to 2020, lightning disaster data from 2000 to 2020, digital elevation data, and soil conductivity data in Anhui Province, a model diagram of disaster-causing hazard zoning was constructed according to"Specification for meteorological disasters investigation and risk assessment: Lightning". The Analytic Hierarchy Process was used to determine the weight of each index, and the lightning disaster-causing hazard index was then calculated. The zoning of lightning disaster-causing hazards in Anhui Province was completed by combining with GIS technology. The results are as follows. (1) The distributions of lightning strike density and lightning peak current amplitude are closely related to the topography. The altitude and terrain have a positive driving effect on the lightning disaster-causing hazard. (2) The high and relatively high sensitivity of lightning disaster-pregnant areas are mainly located in mountainous regions, along the Yangtze River, and parts of the Huai River basin. (3) The areas of high lightning disasters are mainly located in most regions along the Yangtze River and southern mountainous regions in Anhui Province. The areas of relatively high lightning disasters are mainly located in the southern mountainous region, between the Yangtze River and Huai River, and parts of the Jiangnan region. The areas of low and relatively low lightning disasters are mainly located in the plain and hilly areas in the northern Anhui region and the Jiang-huai region. By comparing the zoning results with historical disaster data, it is found that the distribution of lightning disaster-causing hazard zoning agrees well with the true distribution of disaster, which can provide a reference for future lightning disaster prevention in Anhui Province.