INTRODUCTION: Considering the high number of incidents and disasters in Iran and the importance of the issue, this research investigates the challenges and opportunities of people's participation in the implementation of disaster management policies in the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS). METHOD: The research is applied in terms of purpose and mixed in terms of method. In the first stage, structured interviews were conducted with 20 experts and informants in the field of disaster management. Then, data was analyzed through content analysis and open coding, and components of challenges and opportunities were extracted using Maxquda software. Finally, a researcher-made questionnaire for challenges and opportunities based on the findings of the qualitative part was design and its validity and reliability using was confirmed by experts and Cronbach's alpha respectively and were distributed among 365 managers and employees related to disasters. FINDINGS: According to the findings, in the qualitative section, the main challenges include coordination and organization, lack of people’s participation in decision-making, conflict of interests, participation sustainability, level of knowledge and awareness, and resistance to change, as well as the opportunities include increasing efficiency and effectiveness, the use of local knowledge, strengthening the sense of responsibility, communication improvement, cost reduction and strengthening social solidarity. The results of quantitative part, showed that strengthening the sense of responsibility, use of local knowledge and communication improvement with an average of 11. 86%, 10. 38% and 9. 46% respectively of the most important opportunities and conflicts of interest, the level of knowledge and awareness and coordination and organization with an average of 10. 43%, 9. 37% and 9. 35% respectively are the most important challenges. CONCULSION: The results showed that solving the challenges and strengthening the opportunities for people's participation will lead to the success and effectiveness of the implementation of the policies and will lead the society to the direction of prosperity, prevention of wastage of resources, casualties’ reduction and sustainable development. Thus, it is suggested to develop educational programs, strengthen organizational structures, etc. in order to improve people's participation in disaster management.

In the response phase the most important step is to assess disaster after occurrence. By disaster assessment, we can obtain all the needed information for controlling, decision-making and also disaster planning. Lack of disaster assessment causes you to make unsuitable decisions based on limited or inadequate data which leads to imperfect disaster response. According to IFRC, disaster response operation will have an unsuitable function without disaster assessment. This paper presents the principles and concepts of disaster assessment.

Natural disasters lead to sad tragedies and very day life would be disordered after them, people would need to food, cloths, shelter, and healthcare. All nations need the crisis management in order to reduce the impacts of natural disasters, managing the relief operation, rescue, temporary settlement, and reconstruction. In this paper we study the initial level of crisis which includes safety, warning, and training.

On 31 March 2006 a 6.1 earthquake on the Richter scale jolted a vast area in Lorestan Province. Despite a low casualty of only 63, the earthquake seriously damaged close to 20, 000 buildings in 156 villages and 2 cities. Since the earthquake had happened in early spring, a full construction season was ahead. Thus, some 52,000 tents were distributed throughout the Province with the intention to finish reconstruction before winter. The affected households therefore had to live in tents while rebuilding their houses. This paper attempts to evaluate the efficiency of this policy by a survey of 75 households in 15 villages. The results indicate that only 54.7% of the households lived in tents during the reconstruction. Only 13.9% of those staying in tents considered them to be acceptable. The affected households introduced improvements to make tents more liveable, such as erecting timber frames on top of the tents for better insulation and weather protection, or adding shacks for storage or kitchen. The main problems in provision of tents were: inappropriate, insufficient and delayed distribution of tents; delay in lending reconstruction loans and grants; lack of spaces for cattle; hesitation in relocating some villages; lack of know-how on safe construction methods; inappropriate dwelling design; and lack of market control leading to inflation.

Introduction: To cope with natural and unnatural critical events such as air crashes, car accidents, chemicals; and earthquakes or floods needs powerful resource management. Some of these critical events are tiny; and by using local and available resources management could be resolved, but some cover extended geographical areas and so need a massive, vast resources and high level management; for example intense earthquakes which were occurred in Iran. Distributed information systems; including web based DMS and DSS, that has been just developed in some countries, have gained much importance. One typical case was implemented by World Red Crescent in Turkey's earthquake which tolerated many damages six years ago This system is a distributed system and a type of decision support system that can be used in vast critical by disaster managers. This system is compounded of operational research (for example mathematical based-optimization and simulation) and artificial intelligent (for example knowledge based-systems and pattern recognition) and information management systems (network and Net based system) methods. Designing and implementing of this system is very important according to span discussion and available facilities in our country. Literature review: This is a librarian and internet based-research. Architecture of disaster information management system based available information in various articles and web sites in internet are reviewed and then it has been naturalized based on conditions and facilities of our country. Conclusion: in this research proposed architecture has benefits of similar systems as well as It has been naturalized based on conditions and available facilities and it can be operated in various organizations, and can reduce damages due to natural hazards. Applying this architecture is first step in triggering of natural disaster information management systems to reduce damages. Damages due to natural disasters should be reduced by using this system and integrating of available information of various resources in different organizations.

This paper reviews contemporary trends in the management of the crisis phase of disasters. It charts the recent history of emergency preparedness in the light of a basic distinction between civil defense and civil protection. As the former has metamorphosed into homeland security and the latter into civil contingencies management, so a distinction has grown between devolved and centralized management of disasters. This has been accompanied by differences in the strategies employed to bring relief to stricken populations, including the extent to which military and paramilitary forces are involved. The question of devolved versus centralized emergency management is considered in the light of its impact on welfare. The paper then reviews some aspects of the management of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in August-September 2005. It seems reasonable to conclude that symbolic aspects of the media and political response tended to provide impetus to discrimination in the provision of aid. In economic terms, disaster involves a complex process of negotiating for resources, in which the marginalized sections of society are almost automatically disadvantaged. The solution lies in making emergency preparedness more democratic, which is a major challenge for the present century. The article ends by establishing ten principles for fair and democratic civil protection.