The role of local management in improving resilience to natural disasters with emphasis on floods

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of local management and knowledge of local authorities in relation to the principles of disaster management and resilience building. The case study is the rural areas situated in the basins of Cheshmeh Kileh and Sardabrood، which are both tourist attractions and are experiencing significant investments in outdoor activities in the interest of tourism development. Contradictorily the area is faced with high risks of flood، for example، a flood in 2011 imposed a financial damage of estimated 500 billion Rials to the region. Descriptive-analytical methods were used in this applied research to evaluate the 10 principles of resilience management in the local level. The local authorities consisting of the members and chairmen of Islamic councils، district councils and village councils were chosen as the target group for this research. Using the existing literature on the subject of resilience and accounting for the geographical، social، cultural and economic state of the area، a questionnaire was designed and the data regarding the 10 principles was gathered. Results show that the condition of the studied sample is satisfactory in terms of ‘organization and coordination’، ‘management and protection of infrastructure’ and ‘land-use and building rules and regulation’. However in the case of the other 7 principles، the region needs more efficient planning.