Suitable Approach for City Flood Crisis Management: A Case Study of Ilam City

As one of the natural disasters, flood is one of the main challenges for developing countries, which affects many countries of the world every year along with the loss of life and money. In Iran, floods are one of the most frequent natural events that cause much damage due to human intervention in nature and urban development incompatible with natural factors. Many cities in Iran face geomorphological limitations in terms of the physical development process, which has caused these cities to develop towards unsuitable and flood-prone lands. Due to these conditions, Ilam is one of the cities that has expanded to the river bank. Weaknesses of urban management, on the one hand, and traditional crisis management (relying on relief and rescue after the crisis) have caused this city to suffer life and financial losses in the recent flood crisis. Based on the results of the investigations mentioned above and the future studies method, this article seeks to achieve a suitable model of flood crisis management in Ilam.

The type of research is applied, and its research method is descriptive-analytical and survey. Documentary and field methods based on expert questionnaires have been used to collect information and understand the current situation. This survey extracted the effective dimensions and indicators based on theoretical studies. The future research method was used through Mic Mac software to achieve the goal and present the model and scenario. The statistical population includes experts related to the field of natural disasters and crisis management, including experts from the Red Crescent Society, the General Directorate of Crisis Management, the Regional Water and Sewerage Company, the University of Medical Sciences, the municipality, etc. (number of 30 people, sample size using the Delphi method).The spatial scope of the research is Ilam, the capital of Ilam province. The most important dimensions examined in this research are natural (soil type, permanent rivers, topography, rainfall regime), physical (worn-out texture, land use type, respect for neighbors, building density, city texture type, etc.), administrative (urban laws, construction supervision, surface water management, location of sensitive and vital uses, observance of privacy, a written system of crisis management, single urban management, coordination of executive systems, specialization in urban management, documentation and knowledge transfer system, implementation of local management, separation, and verification duties between urban institutions, appropriate financial allocation based on the program), economic (property, income, and insurance), socio-cultural (population density, public participation, public awareness).

In the framework of behavioral and structural schools according to the reality of Ilam, this article has presented the appropriate model of flood crisis management in Ilam. Emphasizing school, social, and economic dimensions and relevant indicators have been developed to answer the article's question. According to the mentioned materials, the perspective used in this article can be called the perspective of structural and behavioral schools of urban flood crisis management under reality. Based on the facts of the mentioned schools, the relevant indicators have been set and compiled to achieve the appropriate model of flood crisis management in Ilam. Thirty-six key factors affecting the current situation of flood crisis management in Ilam, which experts have weighted, were investigated and quantitatively analyzed in Mic Mac software. Concerning the identified factors of the current crisis management (which is traditional), strategies appropriate to the current situation of flood crisis management in Ilam have been presented.

The results of the present research have shown that urban planning and especially urban management during the discussed periods has not been able to properly monitor the physical development of the city and the preservation of river privacy in Ilam. On the other hand, the structural measures of urban management in creating channels and urban flood routes show that implementation plans with appropriate studies on floods have not occurred in Ilam. Suppose the situation of the country's crisis management system is traditional, based on the theory of behavioral and structural schools according to reality. In that case, it is possible to present a suitable urban flood crisis management model, which is the example of Ilam. Moreover, the results of this research are confirmed and can be generalized to cities with similar conditions.