EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS: EXPERIENCE FROM THE BAM EARTHQUAKE

Located in one of the most active tectonic regions of the world, Iran has suffered large and destructive earthquakes and experienced several major earthquakes in the past few decades. Lack of preparedness usually results in significant material and other losses in a disaster and the goal is therefore to shift from reactive to proactive approaches of disaster mitigation. These measures focus mostly on education and training, with the aim of enhancing the community disaster preparedness. Therefore, earthquake preparedness can be regarded as one of the factors which can contribute to safety of the citizens. In Iran, several measures have been undertaken in the recent two decades to improve the public knowledge on risk and disaster mitigation and management. The aim of this paper is to review disaster preparedness in one of Iran’s major earthquakes, Bam, occurred in December 2003 which claimed around 33,000 lives. Few recommended strategies towards promoting public awareness and education as well as earthquake professional training are also presented in this paper.

کلیدواژه ها:

Earthquake Preparedness ، Public Awareness ، Training and Education ، Bam