Safety and crisis management plans for 1,000 schools in Tehran have been improvised and schools will be upgraded with “a state of emergency” system by the end of the current year (March 20, 2016), according to Ahmad Sadeghi, head of Tehran’s Disaster Management and Mitigation Department.
“The department plans to increase urban resilience through education and training, and prevention and preparedness programs in addition to projects planned by the Tehran Municipality,” he said, ILNA reported.
Urban resilience is the capability to prepare for, respond to and recover from multi-hazard threats with minimum damage to public safety and health, the economy and security of a given urban area.
Online courses and general training on crisis management for the public will also be held.
Establishment of professional educational facilities on par with global standards is also on the agenda.
Sadeghi said raising collective awareness on safety issues and promoting the culture of security awareness among the people, as well as establishing and training emergency response teams will be undertaken this year.
“Securing medical and educational facilities in dense public places and creating a system to register, report, analyze and manage urban disasters will also be taken up,” he said.
Half of the world’s population now lives in cities, a figure that is set to rise to 80% by 2050.
Mass density of people makes them vulnerable both to the impacts of acute disasters and the slow, creeping effects of the changing climate; all making resilience planning critically important.
