DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES FOR DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT IN TEHRAN

Tehran is located in a seismic prone zone, surrounded by some active faults and experienced several destructive earthquakes in its history. Seismologists, based on the probabilistic and deterministic evaluations, believe that a strong earthquake would occur in or around the city in foreseeable future. Furthermore, the vulnerability of the structures, infrastructures and old urban areas in Tehran is quite considerable. Weak buildings, old structures, vulnerable lifelines, insufficient emergency infrastructures and roads, lack of sufficient evacuation places at some districts, etc. are some of the key parameters of earthquake vulnerability of the city. In order to evaluate and improve the present condition, a multidisciplinary project has been carried out by the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES) for Tehran Municipality for considering earthquake risk in master plan of Tehran. In that project the seismic and geotechnical hazards in Tehran have been evaluated and then the vulnerability of buildings, lifelines and urban structures has been studied. In the third step the disaster management urban elements including rescue and relief stations, health and medical services, emergency roads and evacuation places have been evaluated and a preliminary guideline for development of the city of Tehran has been prepared based on the existing condition. In this paper a summery about the results of evaluation on existing condition for emergency response facilities would be presented and some of the guidelines developed in this field will be explained.