Journal of Rescue and Relief
Year:2018 | Volume:9 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:10

Background: One of the most important issues in disaster management is road accidents, of which its essential indicators are site selection of relief bases on the roads. In Iran, due to the multiple and separation of tasks and duties, many organizations are legally responsible for road accidents including Red Crescent society, EMS, Road Maintenance & Transportation Organization (Rahdari), and Iranian Traffic Police. Given the social, economic and geographical characteristics, the spatial analysis of relief bases along the roads is considered as an important factor in reducing the vulnerability of road accidents. The purpose of this study is to answer the question of whether the location of the road relief bases is based on appropriate criteria.Method: In this applied research, the methods of documentary, analytical and survey are used. In addition, data is gathered from internet, map, statistical and library resources based on combined methods using applied models such as AHP and GIS.Findings and Conclusion: The results of this research indicate that the most important and priority areas in the case studies have not covered with any relief services. According to the prioritization process of this study, apart from Tehran-Haraz axis, it is necessary to develop rescue and relief bases in two axes of Firuzkuh and Varamin. Also, all three axes especially Haraz and Firuzkuh have not been covered with Emergency Road Services. Moreover, the end part of Firuzkuh axis in Tehran province requires Rahdari and the area of Firuzkuh to the border of Mazandaran province and the axis of Varamin need to study the construction of a police station.

Background: Management of natural disasters requires understanding the nature, precise assessments, planning, also providing the right solutions. Today, most earthquake management programs refer to the period during and after the crisis and less attention is paid to pre-earthquake planning. However, resilience can be considered as more accurate among risk reduction programs and measurable dimensions due to its attention to the socioeconomic dimensions of a city. According to the building code, Bojnord city that is located in north Khorasan province is one of the most vulnerable cities and there have been many extensive earthquakes over the years based on the city history. The aim of this research is to measure the level of resilience of socioeconomic dimensions and to identify the weaknesses of the evaluated sub-criteria.Method: In this descriptive-analytical and applied research, all appropriate evaluation criteria and definitions of Bojnord city was extracted by using library studies. Then by field method, the level of resilience is measured based on analytical hierarchy process and SPSS. Finally, the significance level is evaluated in socioeconomic criteria in order to measure meaningfulness between city resilience and sustainability using Pearson correlation method.Findings: According to these results, in Bojnord city with three available regions the social resilience mean were 89.03%, 87.04 % and 86.53 % respectively in districts1, 2 and Mehr area and 87.67% for the city. In addition, the economical resilience mean of area 1, 2 and Mehr equal were 49.31%, 47.69% and 39.59 % and 45.50 % in the whole city.Conclusion: The results show that Bojnord city with the correlation coefficient value equal to -0.020 and 0.936 sig has no significance in social criteria also it is significant in economic criteria (0.632 with 0.005 sig).

Background: The passive defense is one of the measures that prevent external threats to make internal vulnerabilities. In new design and architecture, it is important to pay attention to the principles of both passive and active defense in addition to the environmental and physical conditions. The importance of this issue in border regions doubled due to the specific geographical and political conditions of these areas. Now the question is “what criteria should be considered to provide security for site selection of users? ” In this regard, the purpose of this research is to prioritize the areas suitable for site selection new residential locations or other urban infrastructures based on the identification of the effective criteria on this prioritization.Method: In this descriptive-analytic research, data collected from library studies as well as field studies and surveys, interviews with experts and distribution of the questionnaire among experts. Then, after analyzing the current data of Eslamabad-e-Gharb by using SWOT method, effective criteria were identified in site selection process. In the next step, criteria weighted by using AHP method and safe areas of Eslamabad-e Gharb prioritized based on the paired comparison technique.Findings: According to the results, three criteria are the main factors affecting the process of site selection in Eslamabad-e Gharb city such as: a) how to access the sub-criteria including the original main facilities and infrastructure; b) lack of direct aerial vision; c) the region situation with sub-criteria including uneven or smooth ground, avoiding hazardous and flooded places and away from incompatible user.Conclusion: The results showed that the accessibility criteria and location of the range between the other metrics for selecting secure sites of this border town are more important.

Background: Hospitals are valuable assets and represent welfare and health of communities as well. Destruction or damage to hospital caused by fire may result in a loss of trust in local authorities and injury to patients and staff that causes health services is not provided correctly. This study aimed to assess both the fire risk assessment quantitatively and the effect of trained crisis management team on fire risk.Method: In this descriptive analytical study, fire risk was calculated for the 15 wards of Hazrat Rasoul-e Akram hospital of Fereydunshahr through fire risk assessment method for engineers (FRAME) firstly. Then, crisis management team was formed and trained; in the following, the effects of fire risk were calculated. Data analyzed by SPSS-20 at a significant level of P<0.05 with Wilcoxon test.Findings: According to the results, the building fire risk and their contents was on average (mean=0.57, SD=0.51), the risk of fire for individuals was (mean=4.60, SD=2.37) and the risk of fire for activities was (mean=1.81, SD=1.56); Given the unacceptable extent in the FRAME method, the risk of fire for activities and individuals were in an undesirable range. In addition, a trained crisis management team reduced the fire risk level by an average of 31.4%. The effect of crisis management team was significant in reducing the risk of fire. (P<0.05).Conclusion: Due to the unfavorable conditions of fire safety in the mentioned hospital, fire risk can be reduced greatly by organizing the crisis management team at the hospital.

Background: Earthquake is one of the most important natural disasters that can destroy human settlements in a very short time. According to the researches, the first 24 hours after earthquakes is the golden time to help the affected people because there is the greatest chance of the victims’ survival of the disasters. However, the dispatch of relief and rescue teams to the more vulnerable areas will reduce the number of casualties and injuries. For achieving these goals, it is necessary to identify the vulnerability map of the studied area in order to send the relief workers with prior knowledge to the area in earthquake occurrence as soon as possible. Method: This research is used the multi criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach based on spatial information system with the aim of identifying the most important factors exacerbating the earthquake induced vulnerability in district 1 of Tehran and providing a vulnerability map. The framework of MCDM includes environmental and manmade factors. The input bases map were provided in binary form based on vulnerability or damage to the different areas. At the end, two methods of Boolean and Index Overlay were used in order to combine the layers. Findings: The results show that 12% of the total study area is classified in high vulnerability group; 45% in the middle group and the rest of the region (about 43%) in the low vulnerability group. In addition, the results showed that Darband area and its surrounding streets are considered as the most vulnerable parts of the first district of Tehran after earthquake regarding the research methods. This is because all vulnerability indicators in this area were undesirable. Depending on the vulnerability map, it is needed to extend the streets and passages in the central parts of the region due to the lack of transportation in the north of the study area and to establish standard roads in the northern parts of district 1of Tehran. Moreover, in order to prevent disasters all standards must be observed during construction due to the geological map prepared and the vulnerability of the major part of this region. Conclusion: According to the results, management plans must be made before the earthquake in order to reduce vulnerability in high vulnerability areas including providing the optimal relief and care centers than crisis and vulnerable centers also applying building standards especially in the adjacent areas of the passageways. After the earthquake, relief workers should be sent to the vulnerable areas with prior knowledge of the affected area and using vulnerability maps.

Background: Fire accidents are considered as one of the most important risks for human beings from a long time ago which leads to loss of life, physical and psychological injuries, loss of properties as well as adverse economic effects on governments. In recent years, there have been many fire incidents in the country and one of the most influential events is the Plasco building fire. This study was conducted to examine and analyze the preparedness and provide prehospital services to the mentioned incident.Method: This case study was conducted in two stages in 2016. At the initial stage, all documentation and reports available on news sites and scientific associations and the national report were extracted and analyzed. In the next stage, through a semi-structured interview the experiences of pre-hospital emergency staff were extracted at the time of the incident.Findings: According to Tehran emergency medical services statistics, the total number of casualties was 235 including 180-outpatient treatment and 55 cases transfer to hospital (one died and the other injured were discharged after treatment). The most important cause of injury was respiratory problems, and most of the victims were firefighting operation staff, and debris, search and rescue workers. The prehospital staff were not settled in the safe area and personal protective equipment was not used properly. In addition, the distribution of injuries in health centers has not been appropriate.Conclusion: The results show that calling of forces and equipment was carried out based on objective observations without an accurate assessment in mentioned incident. One of the biggest challenges in providing prehospital services is the available traditional and non-scientific approach to estimate the equipment needed after an incident and lack of a codified instruction in this regard.

Background: Since the importance of service sectors have increased over the last decade and lack of awareness about service supply chain in hospitals, the aim of this study is providing dynamic model for emergency room service supply chain by using system dynamics approach for analyzing behavior of supply chain based on the effect of supply chain bullwhip.Method: The research method is divided by three stages: review, qualitative and quantitative. First stage, extensive literature review has been done to identify effective factors on emergency room services supply chain. Next, to extract and modify the identified factors used open interview from eight experts. Then, to present the dynamic model information of 1780 people such as general information, nurses evaluation, disease diagnosis by doctor, and drug prescription collected from duration of 500 hours.Findings: The dynamic model of emergency room services supply chain drawn based on system dynamics approach and the validity of the model tested by confirmation of structure, limit conditions and comparison with family credit models. After running the model, none of supply chain bullwhip effects (demand, arranging orders, price fluctuations and supply shortages) could not be consider for emergency room services.Conclusion: According to the results, demand and arranging orders could not intensify the effect of supply chain bullwhip during service operation. Since human are sensitive about being healthy, price fluctuation could not effect on supply chain bullwhip. In addition, supply shortages have the same result because the need to emergency room services is unpredictable.

Background: One of the modern cities problems is the lack of adequate site selection of urban activities that faced them with challenges. However, fire stations as one of the urban services activities are not excluded from this. Due to rapid population growth and illegal growth of cities, the city's safety system needs to be improved to provide adequate coverage for the entire city. Adequate site selection of fire stations is very important in rapid and timely access of firefighting vehicles to the scene of the incident and lowers the severity of damages. On the other hand, the timely arrival of firefighting trucks at the site of the accident requires the appropriate distribution of fire stations.Method: In this descriptive-analytic research, the required information is obtained through field observation, interview, studying the completed plans in relation to Isfahan city and the city's 1/2000 map.Findings: The results indicated that existing fire stations only covered 52.03 percent of active urban spaces at standard time; it is necessary to find new site selection in order to promote fair access for citizens and to improve spatial distribution pattern of fire stations due to the standards.Conclusion: According to the research findings, suitable locations for redistribution of existing stations and construction of new fire stations have been proposed by collecting effective data in form of information layers such as communication network, population density of areas and areas susceptible to accidents, land use, etc. and using GIS and Inversion Hierarchical Weight Process (IHWP).