Yasamin O. IZADKHAH - Assistant Professor, Risk Management Research Centre, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, Tehran, Iran
Kambod AMINI HOSSEINI - Associate Professor, Risk Management Research Centre, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, Tehran, Iran

Iran is located in the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt as one of the most active tectonic regions of the world. The country has frequently suffered large and destructive earthquakes in the past few decades. When a disaster strikes, relief services play an important role and are in a unique position to address the particular needs created by natural disasters. Based on this, emergency relief supplies need to be distributed among survived people in timely manner to protect their lives. Resources and employee support therefore are also required to be mobilized for assisting the affected communities. The aim of this paper is to briefly review the provision and distribution of necessary supplies and resources in the aftermath of three major earthquakes that occurred in Iran during the last quarter of century including Manjil-Roudbar 1990, Bam 2003, and Bushehr 2013 earthquakes. The challenges regarding these three earthquakes in the field of distribution and access to necessary relief items are discussed in this paper. Recommended strategies towards improvement of this process are presented for future disasters. The addressed recommendations are based on observations of the authors and available sources. Lack of recorded documents and confidential data were among the limitations of this study. It should be mentioned that the research on this aspect of earthquake response is very limited in Iran. It is however, addressing a relevant subject to assist people resiliency especially after major earthquakes and is worth of extended research in the future

Supply Distribution, Iran, Earthquakes, Relief