فصلنامه دانش پیشگیری و مدیریت بحران
سال سوم شماره 3 (پیاپی 9، پاییز 1392)

Successful countries consider appropriate public education programs as effective success factors, especially those have been planned and implemented in schools, in the field of earthquake disaster management. This, in turn, leads to risk reduction activities in addition to increasing the level of students’ preparedness. In this study, reviewing the status of seismic provinces, we examined students’ exposure against earthquake in order to classify the most vulnerable geographical points in terms of the student population at earthquake risk and highest rate of risk. To investigate the status of risk province, the area of earthquake relative risk zones were calculated. The students’ population in each zone was studied and risk index for each zone was determined and calculated. Calculating the risk index, provinces were prioritized for earthquake-related educational planning. Level of students’ earthquake risk-taking, in provinces of Iran, were classified in five groups: Very high risk (Tehran, Khorasan-e-Razavi, Fars and Khuzestan), high risk (East Azerbaijan, Isfahan, Sistan and Baluchistan, Alborz, Mazandaran, West Azerbaijan, Kerman, Gilan, Lorestan, Kermanshah, Golestan and Hormozgan), medium risk (Hamedan, Qazvin, Ardabil, Kurdistan and Markazi), low risk (Qom, Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari, North Khorasan, Yazd and Zanjan) and very low risk (Bushehr, Kohkiloye Boyer Ahmad, South Khorasan, Semnan and Ilam). Most parts of the country are located in very high to medium risk zones. There aren’t enough budget, financial and human resources for simultaneously training in all regions and requires scheduled educational programs. So, educational officials and policy makers in schools should implement curriculum appropriate with each province, using educational priorities, in a proper way and considering required budget. Type of Paper: Research article

Disregarding the most basic safety construction in cities, inappropriate condition of most urban constructions and lack of planning for these constructions forecast heavy damages resulting from any incidents in future. The present study investigated and estimated the amount of damages to residential buildings in the occurrence of earthquakes within district 2 of Tehran municipality. Type of this research is applied-fundamental and its method is descriptive analytical. The studied area is the district 2 of Tehran municipality. In this research, statistical data on residential buildings and spatial data of northern fault in the north of Tehran were collected and this data has been used as basic information of Geographical Information System. Residential buildings in north of district 2 of Tehran will suffer the most damages in case of earthquake occurrence. Because of old and worn out buildings in south and west parts of district 2, even the distance differences between the threatening northern faults will not reduce the amount of damages on residential buildings.Type of Paper: Research article

Most of historic and old cities in Iran have been worn. These contexts along with treasures of social memories have been highly vulnerable against disaster occurrence especially earthquakes. Paying attention to disaster management in these contexts has an especial necessity. Applied principles in disaster management can effectively help to improve environmental situation and residence and safety of city against possible incidents and will cause the concept of safe city. This study wants to show that physical, social, economic and institutional- management structure of old contexts of district 12 has a vulnerable and an incomplete framework in the field of disaster management elements and requirements; and by providing guidelines for reducing disaster’s impacts, help to improve urban planning and management process and provide optimum safety and rescue services. At first AHP questionnaire was designed, then the impact of each component of physical, social, economic and institutional management old urban context was studied by Tehran disaster management experts and officials in the matrix of paired comparison and were measured the weight of each of them by using Expert Choice software. The physical dimension has the most effect on vulnerability of district 12. Social, economic and institutional management dimensions are next positions. In order to reduce vulnerability of the district in terms of earthquake should note to before, during and after disaster measures. Preventive measures such as strengthening of existing building, creating sufficient open spaces, widening streets, increasing disaster management support bases and establishing neighborhood emergency response volunteer groups and comprehensive communications to residents are related before the disaster, emergency response actions are related to during a disaster and projects about reconstruction are related to post disaster.Type of Paper: Research article

All organizations are always affected by small and big disaster and because of it, they think remedy to prevent and reduce the impact of these crises on their organizations. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of organizational culture on managers and employees’ performance in Parsian Gas Refinery before, after and during the disaster. For this purpose Robbins’ ten factors model of understanding organizational culture was used. This article is a descriptive – analytical relied on survey method. Thus, indicators of organizational culture and disaster management performance in Parsian Gas Refinery were studied. Literature was collected from books, journals and theses. A questionnaire was designed to collect data and its reliability with Cronbach’s alpha was calculated 0.92%. A sample of 196 people was selected by using of Cochran formula. Pearson correlation analysis was used to test data. Ten elements of organizational culture as the independent variable have a significant and acceptable relationship with four elements of disaster management (prevention, preparedness, response and recovery) as the dependent variable. By multiple regression analysis, it was determined that individual innovation, control, reward system, management support, communication pattern, solidarity, conflict tolerance, identity, risk tolerance and give direction have a greatest linear impact on improving the performance of the disaster management variable. Type of Paper: Research Article

One way of reducing earthquake damages and consequences is preparedness through different maneuvers before the incident. Emergency preparedness and planning in Iran for facing earthquake, especially in big cities such as Tehran, which are more vulnerable, has a special importance. Using information and practical experiences of maneuvers in other countries such as Japan can help in improving Iran’s maneuvers. With studies and practical approaches to performance role of public organizations and NGOs in these maneuvers can decrease social, economic, physical and mental effects of earthquakes in different levels of society with a realistic approach. The damages and risks of this event are actually understandable for maneuvers participants and it causes that people, authorities and organizations don’t forget the lessons and experiences of a natural disaster such as earthquake and always be ready to cope with adverse ev ents. In addition to retrofitting and reconsidering how to build buildings and entrusting it to experienced and knowledgeable people, other preparations such as design systems and urban maneuvers have found its scientific position in the world and can largely overcome this big and stable problem and decrease its irreparable damages to a large extent.Location: Konan, Japan.Type of Paper: Lessons Learned from Field

Earthquake in addition to physical injuries causes serious complications in individuals’ mental health. One of these problems is post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which arises following exposure to extremely serious stress. In this study, the prevalence of this disorder and field symptoms of its risk among earthquake survivors were examined. This review article by using secondary analysis and study of 31 performed field research on earthquakes in Bam, China, Turkey and other parts of the world have investigated the prevalence of PTSD among earthquake survivors. Rates of PTSD were more in women than in men. On the other hand, in some studies there wasn’t any significant relation between gender and PTSD. The amount of this disorder in married people was more than singles and in people with higher education was more than those with lower education. Rates of PTSD vary in different ages and the highest rate was in the age groups under 30 years and 41-50 years. This rate was higher among children. Because our country is considered as one of the most disaster prone countries in the world, governmet it is better to plan long term mental health policies for earthquake survivors and these policies were based on a sample relief. On the other hand, since the economic and social problems after the occurrence of incidents and disasters have a major impact on intensity of mental disorders, it is recommended to increase government supporting policies in this area, for decreasing economic and living problems of people, and these supports can improve mental health problems of the victims. On the other side, the presence of social and religious associations could play a decisive role in reducing and overcoming stress and as a safeguard against PTSD in survivors.

This review defines crisis risk communication, traces its origins to a number of applied fields, and then shows how basic principles have become incorporated into emergency preparedness and risk communication for public health. Literature from four different disciplines that inform crisis risk communications are reviewed. These are (a) environmental risk communication, (b) disaster management, (c) health promotion and communication, and (d) media and communication studies. Current curricula and training materials are briefly reviewed. Although this literature review suggests much progress has been made to incorporate and disseminate crisis risk communication principles into public health practice, and case studies suggest that public health workers have gained skills and experience, this emerging field still lacks in-depth evaluation of the effectiveness of event-specific crisis risk communication efforts. Type of paper: Review article

Although various scholars have researched issues regarding disaster management, few have studied the sharing and coordinating of information during disasters. Not much empirical data is available in this field and there is sparse insight into the factors that may impede or facilitate information sharing and coordination among stakeholders. In this paper, we provide an overview of the relevant obstacles and challenges by examining existing literature and then investigating a series of multi-agency disaster management exercises, using observations and a survey. Although all the people who took part in our study agree that sharing information is important, for the success of their own organization as well as the exercise as a whole, the extent to which information is actually being shared among organizations is often limited by a number of factors that can be attributed to the community, agency and individual level. We found that relief workers are often more concerned with receiving information from others than with providing information to others who may benefit. Incentives for sharing information, understanding each other’s work-processes and the usability of information systems have shown positive effects on information sharing and coordination. The findings of our study have been formulated using six grounded propositions, which can be used by system designers and policy-makers upon validation in further research. We also prov ide directions for future research. Type of paper: Research article