Owing to the limitations of disaster warning accuracy, time constrains and many uncertainties, deciding how to evacuate the inhabitants living in debris-flow potential areas in timely manner and reduce the risk of casualties has become a difficult decision for local governments during typhoons or heavy rainfall. Based on pair-wise comparison and the analytic hierarchy process, this study showed the significant difference between evacuation decisions for local governments at different levels and locations, and established preliminarily evacuation decision-making models. The findings also indicated that using only single disaster warning system is not enough to assist local
governments in making evacuation decisions, and establishing a evacuation decision support system should be one of the priorities in future disaster prevention actions. The results of this study not only provide a strategy for strengthening disaster prevention but also offer a foundation for refining existing disaster warning systems and developing an evacuation decision support system.
Key Words : Evacuation, decision making, local government, debris flow, AHP.