Defining Structural Model of Public Participation in Diminishing the Hazards of Natural Disasters

This study tries to adapt an analytical approach to identifying the relationships between influential factors and mechanisms on attracting public participation along various phases of natural disasters management. This research is a correlational survey and its statistical population is composed of 400 people from among Islam-Shahr city located in Tehran province. The results of Pearson Correlation Coefficient test indicated that there is a significant statistical relationship between independent variables (such as social empathy, individual feeling of inability, rational action, the level of individual awareness of the disaster occurrence and socio-economic basis) with the dependant variable, i.e. the willingness to participate in diminishing the hazard of natural disasters. Consequently, according to the findings of the study, the following solutions are recommended: public trainings in all levels of the society and during all steps of disaster management including preparation, disaster hazard diminishing, confrontation & reconstruction, and forming organized groups in the framework of NGOs, small local groups, Basij and charity organizations as well as groups known as local disaster management. Such solutions may use the public potentials, motivations, capabilities, social empathy and public participation with the aim of diminishing the hazard of natural disasters.