Disaster Management in Transit Roads (A Case Study: Sandstorms in the Yazd-Ardakan Road)

More than a half of our country's area is located in arid regions and is exposed to desert formation and sandstorms. Sandstorms in arid and semi-arid regions of the country make problems for drivers across transit roads, resulting in many accidents and bringing about heavy traffic. One of the most important transit roads, which connect North of Iran to theSouth, is Tehran–Bandarabbas arterial road, part of which is the Yazd– Ardakan road in central Iran, annually faced with at least 5 giant sandstorms in average.The aim of this paper is to provide a good level of preparedness for the related departments and executives of Yazd province and to enhance managerial power and potential to fight sandstorm disasters in the Yazd– Ardakan road. To do so, the activities and duties of all related administrative department for sandstorm disaster management in the Yazd–Ardakan road has been determined. The results show that sandstorm disaster management and prevention is possible through cooperation among administrative departments and creating a disaster command system.