EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Year:2013 | Volume:1 | Issue:2|Papers Count:7

Land-use planning and management as one the main tools of urban planning plays a vital role for fulfillment of risk assessment in urban development process. Literatures and experiences are two important sources for improving the procedures of land use planning as a high priority mater and tool used in risk mitigation approaches for urban societies. This study aims to recognize criteria and methods of earthquake risk assessment and risk reduction in urban areas through land-use planning for District 3, Zone 5, in Tehran as a case study which has high probability of the occurrence of the earthquake. This study used a descriptive-analytical method. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used based on the earthquake risk criteria within a linear relation (as: risk=hazard×vulnerability×exposure) to develop risk and prioritization maps and defining suitable strategies, policies and action plans for land-use planning and zoning. The results show that quantitative and comparative analyses in combination with Analytic Hierarchy Process and risk linear relation are an effective and useful method to assign the acceptable risks and direct decisions in land-use planning. It identifies priorities and deficiencies which intensifies vulnerabilities in the urban areas to natural hazards such as earthquake.

Lifeline networks, such as water, electricity, telecommunications, transportation, oil and gas, are the most vulnerable lifelines in natural and man-made disasters. Considering the interdependency between these lifelines, the evaluation of lifeline behavior and modeling of seismic interaction between them is essential.Power network has the most influence and importance among the Lifelines because of its critical role in the performance of the other lifelines. In assessment of seismic reliability, the calculations of lifeline with the effect of power network are quite necessary. The assessment of the effect of electricity in the behavior of other lifelines is very sophisticated and its complicated process requires numerous details. This has resulted in errors in available researches. Indeed, neglection and consideration of the electricity power effect requires careful and accurate assessment, even in the case of using graphs and standards from HAZUS and Risk-UE. It should be noted that electricity power effect has already been considered in fragility curves. In this paper, after addressing the exact evaluation of electricity power network, and introducing its calculation process in seismic interaction studies, the results are used to model the effect of electricity power in seismic performance assessment of water network in district 6 of Tehran. The results can be used for all kinds of lifeline calculations such as loss estimation, risk assessment or lifelines interaction analysis.

One of the most important issues in crisis management that has always been considered by responsible organizations is the site selection for temporary housing to be used by the population affected by disasters. In this research, district six of Shiraz city with high seismicity has been selected as a case study for positioning temporary housing after a probable earthquake. Moreover, by using analytical – descriptive method, after clarifying the effective criteria, the under reviewed criteria and indicators are weighted according to the ideas of crisis management experts and by using the Shannon entropy technique. Then based on TOPSIS model and Excel software, the possible places for temporary housing are ranked in terms of priority. According to the results the best places for temporary housing are parks and bare lands within the case study district, which confirm hypothesis of research.

Since the behavior of buried fuel pipelines are complicated against the potential earthquakes there would be high possibility of direct and indirect losses in those networks. Therefore, seismic performance analysis of buried pipelines, which are amongst the main infrastructures and lifelines in urban areas, is of great importance. In this respect, Kermanshah city, with three buried fuel pipelines, is selected as the case study and the probable seismic damages to its buried pipelines are analyzed by using a program posted to GIS software. The program automatically calculated the regional seismicity parameters (PGA and PGV), the number of leaks and failures, number of ignition, area that can be affected by fire and explosion, total population at risk, and the number of units at risk of explosion after earthquake. Using the mentioned program, risk map of the area in connection with three kinds of failures in suspending power lines under two scenarios were analyzed and the results were compared with each other in both quantitative and graphic manners. In the risk map, impacts of the electrical power network were found quite evident and responsible for the amount of the damages. According to the results, by retrofitting the power network, the number of ignition on the fuel pipelines of Kermanshah can be reduced from 21 to 2 in scenario 1 and from 2 to zreo in scenario 2.

Optimization of locating fire stations is one of the most important considerations for public sector and its services. The importance of this issue is increased significantly not only because of the social attention to emergency and safety services but also regarding to new preventive measures for fire disasters and emergency management in the cities.Providing effective and on-time services depends on efficient and suitable locating of fire stations. It helps fire stations provide fast services without encountering obstacles and constraints of urban environment. Moreover, this optimization minimizes the negative effects on residential lifestyle. The metropolis of Tehran with a population of more than eight million is the largest city in Iran. Due to the parallel development of the urban environment of the city and its population, the likelihood of fire incidents has been increased.This study is aimed to investigate the spatial distribution of fire stations and their operational distance (radius) for fire stations in the region sixth of Tehran. This study used descriptive-analytical method with the aid of collaboration of network analysis and multi criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques integrated in geographical information system (GIS). Research results have shown that the pattern of spatial distribution of fire stations in area of study was not appropriate. Current stations are failed to cover their whole service area in the standard time (3 minutes). Thus, two new stations have been proposed by using analytical methods (MCDM) collaborated with hierarchical model (AHP) and integrating it with the capabilities of GIS. These two stations are added to cover urban areas which are out of current coverage plan of existing stations. It helps fire vehicle and emergency teams reach the incident area within standard time.

In recent decades, accelerated development of cities and increasing urban population, have caused more and more problems in planning, management, and control of the cities. This problems will be more complex when are concurrent with natural crises and spatially when associated with social crises. Determining the vulnerability of urban areas, and consideration of the factors influencing the vulnerability, are the requirements that should be done before happening of a crisis in order to prepare for more efficient crisis management in the cities. Geographic Information System as one of the most powerful analytical instruments can help us in the best way with its unique analytical capabilities to determine potential vulnerability of the urban areas. In this study, firstly vulnerability map of the region in Tehran city under the physical, socio economic and security criteria is prepared in GIS environment. In preparation of the map we focused on 38 indicators and then vulnerability of the region was determined and classified in 5 classes from less vulnerable to quiet troubled areas via overlapping the layers of information relevant to these indicators. Then, the areas that have the ability to be deployed as the rescue centers in the region and its surroundings were identified. Finally, the shortest routes to the crisis locations are found by using the network analysis in GIS. The result shows that most vulnerable parts of the region are located in the center and south eastern of the region. Vulnerability of more than 0 percent of buildings in this area is very high and most of the area is amongst the most problematic parts. Furthermore, northern parts of the region are the least vulnerable and have the relative low vulnerability potential in its most parts.

During the twenty-first century, the world has faced with dramatic changes in the technological, social, economic and political environment, which no organization has remained immune from the corresponding changes and rapid events. Crisis management and strategic management are important issues during the last decade in the management literature. In this paper, the impact of strategic management on crisis management is investigated. This research conducted as a quantitative research with survey approach. The population consisted of 500 Iranian companies in the rail transport industry out of which 103 companies were selected as samples. To test the research hypotheses, structural equation modeling is used. The results show that companies tha tare better in strategic management have better quality in criiss management.