Yasamin O. Izadkhah

ABSTRACT Community education programmes can be more effective when they target specific groups or sectors of the community. Typically" targeting" will focus the education effort on the potentially most vulnerable in society such as children, women, elderly and ...

Natural disasters have continuously been identified as a threat to public safety. However, in disaster situations, animals are also under the threat of getting hurt as well as being counted as a danger to public safety. This is therefore, one of the issues that need high attention, particularly after the occurrence of sudden natural disasters, such as earthquakes. In this paper, the case study of Eram zoo has been selected and it has been tried to look at procedures that can be taken for zoo disaster management after a seismic disaster in Iran. There are two issues that can be considered. First it is the animal welfare/well being subject to structural damage of their cages and secondly, the potential of animals being released and hence the threat they may cause to the public safety. It is hoped that the observations of this study could provide basic recommendations for disaster managers to cope with this situation in probable future earthquakes in the country. Also, based on the findings of this research, part of necessary actions that should be taken by the zoo authorities before, during and after earthquakes can be highlighted in order to preserve the safety of animals, visitors and neighboring areas.

The importance of public awareness and community-based activities for disaster risk mitigation and management has been revealed more clearly during the recent years. In this regard, several national policies have been prepared and some activities were proposed and carried out by governmental and non-governmental organizations in seismic areas for improving the public awareness and participation in earthquake risk reduction programs from local to national levels. In this paper, some existing policies and recommended executive plans for improving the public and local participation and networking in risk management have been partly addressed.

Disaster management planning of all educational institutes in high earthquake prone-areas is a necessity. In this paper, the development of an earthquake management system for nursery schools is highlighted. The unavoidable nature of the disasters, the impossibility to predict them and the need for considering the safety of the very young generation who are the future assets of communities emphasises

Background: The ability of hospitals to continue functioning without interruption in disaster situations is a matter of life and death. The Hospital Safety Index (HSI) provides an overview of the probability of a hospital or healthcare facility to remain operational in emergency situations. Aims: This study has been performed in one of the hospitals associated with Social Security Organization in Tehran in order to assess the HSI in disasters. HSI helps authorities to quickly determine where interventions can improve safety.
Materials and Methods: In this applied study, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used.
Settings and Design: A specialized hospital in Tehran was studied regarding its structural, nonstructural and functional aspects using the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization  (WHO/PAHO) standard checklists. Various wards and personnel of the hospital were included in this study.
Statistical Analysis Used: Different types of hazards were analyzed, which are related to the location of the hospital. For
determining the amount of risk in different wards, the occurring probability of each risk was scored based on the section status, previous records and events according to the Likert scale in one of the 4 levels and the total scores was considered as the section risk amount. Afterward, among each sections with similar tasks  (administrative, financial, managerial and professional, supportive, clinical, surgery room and intensive care unit, emergency unit, and inpatient sections), the least and most amount of risk were clarified
with regard to the following scores. Regarding the total scores, the minimum risk amount was 17 and the maximum was 68 in each section. If the total score was less than 17, no risk (safe), 17‑34 low risk, 35‑52 moderate risk, and in case of 53‑70, the high risk was considered for that section.
Results: According to the results, the final Hospital Safety Index score places this hospital in category “C” among three existing classifications of safety, which means that the hospital’s current safety levels are inadequate to protect the lives of patients and hospital staff during and after a disaster.
Conclusions: Urgent intervention measures and rapid assessment will give decision‑makers a starting point to identify priorities in order to reduce risk and vulnerability in hospitals and health care facilities.

This paper discusses issues related to training school teachers in the developing countries on the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) problems. Various teacher training techniques are mentioned in this paper with emphasis on in-service training. Teachers with dissimilar backgrounds need to be taught different materials in the same course in order to reach the same level of disaster preparedness and the required related knowledge. In this regard, the paper tries to discuss challenges and propose opportunities briefly. In the first sections of the paper, the key issues in in-service training for adults are addressed. Then, interactive methods that can be used for in-service training are briefly explained. After that, the case study of Iran as a sample of developing countries is presented, and the basic issues in training teachers on DRR are discussed. At the end, the challenges in training teachers are presented and recommendations are provided.

"The Khuzestan province is one of the most important provinces in Iran border and is considered as one of the disaster-prone areas in the country. The specific geographical, demographic, and strategic situation of Khuzestan along with the amount of oil and gas resources and the existing industry in this area has made the province’s role even more important. Since the first stage in disaster management is to analyze risk as well as preparing the society, the present study deals with a situational analysis of Khuzestan people’s participation in confronting natural disasters from the official’s perspectives. This paper has been undertaken in four stages: In the first stage, the Khuzestan province situation is evaluated regarding the natural disasters occurrence. Then, the province situation is addressed from the perspectives of related organizations and active groups on disasters. By using qualitative study and deep interviews in the third stage, the officials’ perspectives on how to attract people to participate in confronting natural disasters is collected. In the final stage, after analyzing the obtained results, strategies are presented in order to use these guidelines and recommendations in reducing the probable human casualties in future disasters. 

Keywords:
Natural Disasters, Officials’ Perspectives, People participation,  Risk Analysis
"

Education and community preparation is one of the most important components of disaster management. This phase of the disaster management cycle can play a significant role in disaster risk reduction due to its high effect on community. So far, because of this importance, many activities have been undertaken in various countries for disaster education and public awareness. This study aims to assess and evaluate the public awareness of tsunami disaster in Chabahar port in Iran by using questionnaires that were distributed to three various groups of respondents including: residents, school children and governmental officials. The data have been collected by field technique through simple random sampling. Results revealed the lack of awareness and enough knowledge of the people in the region, especially women. Based on the obtained findings and analysis of the results, few suggestions and strategies are proposed by the authors for raising public awareness of probable tsunami disaster in the future as well as to promote novel disaster management methods.

Natural disasters have constantly been a big challenge in sustainable development. In order to reach this development, using vulnerability reduction patterns and models is very essential. Therefore, disaster risk reduction is of great importance and should find its proper place in national policies of every country in order to provide an appropriate condition for effective risk reduction in various levels. In this regard, promoting preparedness of the society for encountering future events and their capacities to resist the heavy pressures of disasters needs a comprehensive and widespread planning. Since the main part of these programs targets the various groups of society, therefore the role of human science is very important and fundamental. The society's capacity is called "Resilience" in human science which will be addressed in this paper. Its definitions and few resilience models are also presented. At the end, suggestions are made for developing, maintaining and obtaining resilience in disasters.

SUMMARY:
This paper discusses issues related to training school teachers in the developing countries on the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) problems. Various teacher training techniques are mentioned in this paper with emphasis on in-service training. Teachers with dissimilar backgrounds need to be taught different materials in the same course in order to reach the same level of disaster preparedness and the required related knowledge. In this regard, the paper tries to discuss challenges and propose opportunities briefly. In the first sections of the paper, the key issues in in-service training for adults are addressed. Then, interactive methods that can be used for in-service training are briefly explained. After that, the case study of Iran as a sample of developing countries is presented, and the basic issues in training teachers on DRR are discussed. At the end, the challenges in training teachers are presented and recommendations are provided.

Keywords: Teachers, Training techniques, Disaster risk reduction, Education

Iran is located in the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt, as one of the most active tectonic regions of the world. Throughout history, Iran has frequently suffered large and destructive earthquakes and experienced several major earthquakes in the past few decades. More than 70 percent of the big cities in Iran are located in the vicinity of seismic faults and in some cases, the active faults pass through the city. Therefore, earthquake preparedness can be regarded as one of the factors which can contribute to safety of the citizens. The aim of this paper is to review the trend and progress of disaster preparedness in four major earthquakes that has occurred in Iran including Manjil – Roudbar, 1990, Avaj 2002, Bam 2003, and Darb-e-Astaneh 2006 earthquakes. At the end, recommended strategies towards promoting public awareness and education as well as professional training are presented.

Since many years, the “Drop, Cover and Hold on” (DCH) has been suggested and taught as an acceptable approach internationally for taking proper and correct reactions during earthquakes. This method is designed with the aim of avoiding careless and dangerous behaviours in order to bring less damage to people due to earthquakes. In the last decade, another advice has been introduced called “Triangle of Life” in which people are recommended to stay next to heavy objects and furniture, because it is assumed that in case of the fall of ceiling, a triangular space can be shaped next to these objects and therefore can save lives. Considering the high importance given to the correct sheltering in this paper, the limitations and advantages of both approaches are explored and an attempt has been made to identify one of them as an appropriate advice with regard to Iran’s situation. Therefore, each of these theories are analysed briefly and compared considering their application, the extent of people who are under the coverage, simplicity in transferring concepts, and the probability of reducing casualties and damage. In this paper, classifying the target group has been addressed based on these two approaches and the validity of the approaches has been evaluated according to the classified target groups. Based on the results and observations, it was revealed that DCH is still regarded as a better option to recommend people of what to do during earthquakes.

Located in one of the most active tectonic regions of the world, Iran has suffered large and destructive earthquakes and experienced several major earthquakes in the past few decades. Lack of preparedness usually results in significant material and other losses in a disaster and the goal is therefore to shift from reactive to proactive approaches of "disaster mitigation”. These measures focus mostly on education and training, with the aim of enhancing the community disaster preparedness. Therefore, earthquake preparedness can be regarded as one of the factors which can contribute to safety of the citizens. In Iran, several measures have been undertaken in the recent two decades to improve the public knowledge on risk and disaster mitigation and management. The aim of this paper is to review disaster preparedness in one of Iran’s major earthquakes, Bam, occurred in December 2003 which claimed around 33,000 lives. Few recommended strategies towards promoting public awareness and education as well as earthquake professional training are also presented in this paper.

Natural disasters such as earthquakes bring in their chaotic and complicated situations in which people are terrified and hesitant. Therefore, accurate information is important at every stage, from early warnings to recovery phases. During the last few decades, the number of natural disasters such as earthquakes has shown a growing interest in how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can help. In this regard, one of the solutions can be using mobile phones in developing countries, most of which are vulnerable to natural disasters and are badly affected when disastrous events strike. It should be noted that the distinctive contribution of mobile lies in its unique capacity to disseminate information quickly and informally from individual to individual, which can be of great value during the response phase of disasters. However, a good management is necessary in order to reduce the chaotic situation created by un-pre-planned and congested mobile calls. A careful study of the impact of mobiles makes it clear that the nature of communication needs differs at diverse phases of a disaster like an earthquake including all its phases. This paper firstly, discusses the importance as well as shortcomings of the mobile communications during and in the aftermath of earthquake disasters. As an example, the widespread availability that mobile phones have had on the relief and recovery efforts in disasters such as Iran Bam earthquake, 2003 is addressed. Finally, suggestions for more efficient use of mobile phones in a pre-planned earthquake emergency response will be presented.

One of the important needs of the human beings is to maintain the security of their life. This is one of the issues that need much attention after the occurrence of a natural disaster, especially earthquakes. In all disastrous earthquakes around the world, due to the created chaos in the temporary social orders, there would be a suitable ground for the looters and criminals to misuse the situation which threats the lives and properties of the vulnerable people. This threat can be worse than a disaster itself for those who have lost their homes and families. In this paper, a study has been performed to include the public defense and protection preparedness against earthquakes as well as to provide a background of this subject in natural disasters in Iran and few other countries. At the end, recommendations and guidelines for local and public preparedness is presented. The role of various groups especially women is also highlighted.

Disaster education from the early ages can be a suitable mean for increasing children knowledge to face events such as earthquakes. In addition, the transfer of this knowledge to the family and the wider community seems feasible and promising in the development of a future seismic safety culture. Different types of teaching for children have been identified from various sources such as role-playing, working in groups, games, discussions between children and teachers, and practical demonstrations that may all be effective depending on the context they are used. One of these methods is teaching through puppet gloves. It is assumed that this method not only arouses the interest of children in learning, but also improves their understanding about the phenomenon. In this paper, the use of puppet gloves has been examined in a small-scale study in a kindergarten in north of Tehran, district one. The advantages and shortcomings of this method have been highlighted and discussed for further work in the future.

The number and severity of natural disasters have increased continuously over recent decades, especially in developing countries. The World Bank has estimated that 97 percent of all human deaths due to natural disasters occur in these countries. The geographical situation and people’s unawareness and lack of preparedness in developing countries are among the main causes which make them suffer more severely from the effects of natural disasters. Meanwhile, the reaction and response to disasters have been more reactive than proactive in almost all disaster prone countries, particularly the underdeveloped and developing ones. There is a need therefore, to reverse the trend of increasing worldwide vulnerability, by providing “access to knowledge and technology”, “increasing the public awareness”, and “considering the safety measures” as the main and key factors in development. Based on the existing evidence, most of the time, these vulnerabilities are the results of the human errors rather than the nature’s forces. And therefore, suggested developed and implemented proactive tools can help the vulnerable communities to protect themselves, their livelihoods and settlements from the impacts of disastrous natural hazards. This paper intends to address these proactive means, already developed and implemented in many countries, in order to show their feasibility, practicality, usefulness, along with their social and cultural outcomes. The paper particularly discusses how these factors can contribute in safety and resilience of the most vulnerable groups of the society, the children, in upcoming future natural disasters, especially in developing countries, with considering Iran as the case study.

In this paper, the issues of temporary shelters and reconstruction are considered from three points of view:  1) Government involvement, 2) Community contribution, and 3) International community participation. The role of management in coordination of activities of all sectors contributing in temporary actions as well as reconstruction activities is thoroughly investigated and its weakness and strengths are discussed. The development of temporary and permanent shelters is addressed in various aspects. The first is the technical aspect to find out how appropriate the shelters have been reconstructed to resist the future earthquakes. The second aspect deals with the social and cultural characteristics of the city and its people, and the degree that the architectural features could match the local culture in the recovered area. Issues such as adaptability of people with the new situation and their resilience are also discussed. The last aspect is with regard to economical issues and how they have influenced the livelihoods of affected people. At the end, based on the lessons learnt, some recommendations are made which are believed to be useful for preparing the plans for the shelter actions as well as the reconstruction process for future similar cases.

Decision makers and emergency managers can play a crucial role in reducing the unpleasant consequences of disasters. Therefore their training for confronting these events is very important. In this paper, an attempt has been made to clarify the measures for planning and implementation of training issues in earthquake emergency response for the emergency managers as an essential part in various managerial levels. This is induced from the fact that although the high-level managers such as ministers are authoritative bodies for managing the routine problems of the country, in situations such as a “major emergency”, a specific knowledge and experience of emergency issues is required for the emergency management to be successful. Therefore, the existing challenges, such as the lack of adequate background knowledge and experience in emergency management, insufficient time to train, the inadequacy of the required technical supporting tools, and other related issues emerge which need to be identified and discussed. Consequently, the possible innovative ways and opportunities for achieving successful training programs for the emergency managers are also proposed in the paper.

Whilst the world has many wars taking place and causing unbearable human suffering, natural disasters are also taking their toll in various ways against humanity. The threats of the flood hazard has become complex and interrelated whilst the number of the vulnerable is growing fast. Floods have not spared the peaceful country of Malawi. The whole of Malawi is virtually vulnerable to floods. However, the Lower Shire Valley has been one of the most affected parts of the country. This paper has analysed some vital aspects of floods in Malawi by examining the case study of the Lower Shire River Valley. It has focused on the extent of people’s vulnerability to the flood hazard and the effectiveness of its management in the area. It has duly analysed the risk reduction measures in practice and identified the various political, social, and economic factors that influence the management of floods in this valley. The study exposes the Malawi strategy towards flood mitigation as well as the situation and attitudes of the flood victims pertaining to the policies and the measures being utilised to address the hazard. The study confirms that floods can be an issue of broad security agenda. Despite the entanglement of financial constraints, the study recommends that policy makers should put more effort to alleviate the lamentable situation in this valley. Thus, it is a requisite to have a comprehensive approach, pragmatic policies as well as their implementation mechanisms. There is also a requirement for effective consultation, collaboration and coordination, progress monitoring and above all, the will.

Various programs and activities have been designed and used in different parts of the world for educating children about disasters with similar objectives: firstly to motivate children and their families to take action in order to be better prepared to survive a disaster with minimal injury, loss of property, and psychological problems, and secondly to teach them about the science of an specific hazard and related issues. Audio and visual tapes can be beneficially used in preschool levels, in addition to which children can benefit from the messages conveyed by music, songs and films. In this paper, it is tried to introduce songs as a tool in teaching disasters and to highlight their effectiveness in children’s learning about hazards such as earthquakes. The content of the “Earthquake and Safety” song, comparison of using songs with other educational tools, how to simplify the scientific terms and statements to be included in the song, the rhythm to be used, and finally how to produce the song in a way which can communicate with the children and teachers more effectively are also discussed.

Evidences obtained from various countries show that most of the time, local people, especially neighbours are among the first to help those who need rescue and relief in the immediate aftermath of major earthquakes. On this basis, conducting studies is necessary to educate and activate local people and train selected representatives in each community in order to increase their mutual cooperation with the central government before the event as well as to establish or upgrade their capability to help themselves much more effectively, before and particularly in the time interval between the earthquake occurrence and when the rescue and relief teams reach the stricken area. In this paper, after providing a general background with regard to the social and cultural patterns for involving local people to participate in the activities related to awareness-raising before, and saving their lives and properties after the earthquakes, it is tried to identify and discuss the main prerequisites which are deemed for such initiatives. Among them specific issues with regard to education, training, capacity building and action plans which are required for those who live in a neighbourhood, are discussed separately.

Equipping health care facilities for times of natural disasters especially earthquakes is of great importance all over the world, especially in developing countries such as Iran. In this paper, first the obtained research results are discussed with regard to the types of structures and the ...

Iran is located among the top disaster-prone countries in the world and therefore, disaster management is considered as one of the most important issues in this country. One of the existing and worldwide approaches for managing disasters is the so-called Community-Based Disaster Management (CBDM). Community participation means that people’s contribution in disaster management cycle can start from the basic steps of a process and to end in the achievement and institutionalization in the community. The purpose of this paper is to make a comparative study on the CBDM in various selected countries in order to design a model for Iran. On this basis, a descriptive-comparative study has been undertaken through a methodology including six steps in which few countries have been chosen based on their contribution to issues such as policy making, planning, coordination, organizing and control of disasters as well as their experience in disaster management and access to related information. The results of the study show that in order to achieve a successful disaster management, there is a need for participation of the community in various disaster management life cycle. However, it is evident that the type of this contribution may differ according to the characteristics of each specific country. This paper, therefore, aims to propose and design a model to use CBDM in Iran. The most emphasis of this model is the presence and contribution of community in the local level at villages and neighborhoods in a city. In this regard, it is hoped that with updating and implementing this model, the government’s capability enhances in order to encounter disasters more effectively in the future.

Communication of information is central to disaster management, awareness and preparedness. The aim of this paper is to propose new ways for communicating through presenting information by using the internet as a relatively new media and a suitable option for rapid and global dissemination of hazard information in both national and international levels. Both developed and developing countries are taken into consideration and some new ways are proposed for different groups of internet users, including the authorities and officials, the specialists, and finally the public. In the third group, the main attention is paid to the children and young adults. New forms of presenting information through network programmes, which are proposed in this paper, will definitely help in initiating another new step in disaster awareness and preparedness among the public which emphasises the famous sayings of “prevention begins with information”.

Iran has 28 provinces (Figure ) and each province is divided into several counties, districts, rural districts, and villages. Kerman province is one of the 28 provinces of Iran. It is in the southeast of the country and its center is the city of Kerman. Bam is located in the southeast section ...

This paper aims to provide a broad overview of the South Asian Tsunami in relation to the development of the Early Warning System (EWS). In particular, it focuses on social and administrative aspects that require detailed attention as key elements within the overall system. In addition, the paper discusses the Tsunami EWS and its integration within the seismic safety chain. The observations grow from experience gained by Ian Davis from working on the UK IDNDR Flagship project Warnings and Forecasts from 1996-9 and participation in the Working Group advising Prime Minister Tony Blair on the development of warnings in preparation for the G8 meeting held in Scotland in June 2005 . In addition, the conclusions of the paper grow from variety of experiences that both authors have gained in working for many years in the field of disaster management.