Mahmood Hosseini - Director of Structural Engineering Research Center, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), Tehran, Iran; and Project Manager for Sub-Regional Initiative for Disaster Risk

Development cannot be sustainable if the effects of natural and man-made hazards are not taken into account in the process of development. To consider these effects it is necessary toapply the Risk Management programs, and this application need a highly qualified management to be successful. This paper tries to explain the links between Disaster Risk Management and Quality Management in various aspects, with special emphasis on theEarthquake Disaster Risk Management. Considering the Risk as the product of Hazard and Vulnerability, it is obvious the Risk Reduction requires the reduction of either hazard or vulnerability. Both of these reductions need qualified management to be successful, particularly vulnerability reduction, which deals with issues like (in the case of BuildingIndustry) the quality of architectural and structural design, the quality of constructionmaterials, the quality of workmanship, the quality of technical inspections, and so on. In the case of vulnerability reduction for the existing buildings and facilities retrofitting is the mainpreventive action, which can take place. In this regard the quality of retrofit design and construction is of very great important form both reliability and economy of the retrofit. On the other hand, Disaster Mitigation as the final goal of every Disaster Risk Management Program needs itself an interdisciplinary management framework in which the quality of management in all phases of mitigation, namely prevention and protection, response and recovery, and restoration and reconstruction is very important. Among these the Disaster Education issue has several problems to be discussed on. These problems will be addressed and discussed in detail in the full paper.

Sustainable Development, Hazard, Vulnerability, Seismic Risk Reduction, Design Quality, Buildings and Facilities Retrofitting, Disaster Mitigation, Emergency Management