Developing the Dynamic Model of Earthquake Crisis Management in Tehran City Using System Dynamics Approach

Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, create substantial financial and human costs for governments and communities. One of the most important factors in increasing or decreasing the losses and the number of human casualties during and after an earthquake is the existence of an efficient crisis management system. Considering the special location of Tehran city and the probability of occurrence of an earthquake in this city, and as to the high estimated financial and consequential damages, a dynamic crisis management model using system dynamics methodology is presented in this study to facilitate more efficiently managing the crisis by simulating activities after an earthquake crisis. Therefore, after modeling and validating the proposed model, the behavior of the main variables of interest, such as the number of people imprisoned and the number of casualties caused by the earthquake, are simulated up to 5 days after the crisis, considering continuance of the current trend as well as the adoption of the proposed policies presented by the Crisis Management organization. Suggested solutions include refurbishing worn out buildings, rescue training, and training how to deal with earthquakes through media and cyberspace with the help of campaigns. The research findings show that as for the estimated costs of implementing the three policies, a combination of the second and the third will work best to reduce the number of people imprisoned by the earthquake and the number of casualties. The findings show that considering the estimated costs of implementing the above three projects, pre-crisis training, despite its lower initial cost than other crisis management strategies, has a significant impact on reducing post-earthquake disaster. It will reduce the death toll from the current 10-point earthquake from 1,541,000 to 689,000 if the capital is provided around 1,000 billion Rials per year to implement the second and third policies.