IGNITE STAGE 14 March 2015 ABBAS OSTAD TAGHIZADEH IGNITE STAGE Tehran thunderstorm: an unexpected success story 14 March 2015 ABBAS OSTAD TAGHIZADEH

Tehran, The capital of Iran 3

4 General information Tehran, Iran. Iran administrative divisions

Tehran General Information Key Information ProvinceTehran Latitude35 40 N Longitude51 26 E City1500 km (579 sq mi) Urban686 km (265 sq mi) Elevation1200 m (3,900 ft)mft Population(2006)about 11,000,000 Density 10000/km (25,899/sq mi) Time zone3.5 GMT District22 Sub District155 Neighborhood (Mahalleh)375 5

Introduction On Monday afternoon 2 nd June 2014 at 17:30 local time (9:00 a.m. U.S. EDT) an unexpected thunderstorm of speed as high as 118 km/h hit Tehran. This thunderstorm plugged the city into darkness for hours, affected the citizens and damaged properties

Thunderstorms Thunderstorms are kind of severe unstable weather with gusty, locally generated horizontal winds associated with lightning, thunder, often with rain, and sometimes with hail. Previously, Tehran had not experienced a similar event.

Meteorological changes The temperatures suddenly dropped from centigrade at 16:10 to at 18:10. The air humidity rose from 14.2 % to 68.4% (54.2%changes). The wind speed suddenly increased at 17:00 and only during 20 minutes reached to 118 km/h.

Meteorological changes

Human Impacts

Property impacts

Response phase Tehran emergency operation and command center was organized. Rapid assessment and emergency response teams started to manage the event. One hundred electricity response teams, 15 search and rescue teams, Emergency Medical teams and municipal teams were involved in response phase. Finally after six hours about 24 response phases were finished and the city entered to recovery phase

How this disaster made Tehran more resilient Lessons Learned

1. Strengthening HSE regulation 87.5% of deaths and at least 77.5% of injuries occurred by fallen buildings material or fallen trees. Unsafe construction process could explain a part of reasons. Despite insurance of HSE- MS in construction industry, It was not well settled. Now Tehran has more implemented HSE System. Education of construction workers (urban planners, architectures, civil engineers) is mandatory now.

2. Public Education and Preparedness plan When thunderstorm was blowing, the people were running and walking in streets and the cars were moving. Since this kind of disaster was unusual in Tehran, the people were not educated and prepared for it. After this event, Tehran developed a comprehensive public education plan for disaster prevention and education and will implemented it in the next years.

3. Investment on CBDRM Pictures showed that the citizens were waiting until the responders arrived and opened the ways. This event emphasized that community based disaster risk management approach and promotion of social responsibility is a necessity for disaster risk management. Tehran is planning to increase the number of Volunteers group in the next 5 years.

4. Investment on early warning systems This storm showed that the weather notification and early warning system in Iran needs to improved and clarified for responders. There were no appropriate forecasting equipment and software as well as early warning systems. Iran Parliament deployed more budget for Iran’s meteorological system to improve and use advanced now casting and early warning systems.

5. Disaster recovery Fund This thunderstorm highlighted absent or inefficient mechanisms of risk transfer and loss compensation in local governance level. Tehran City Council issued an act to provide Disaster Recovery Fund. Based on this act, part of annual budget of Tehran municipality will be saved in a fund and allocated for compensating the property losses in possible future disasters. Moreover, the local authorities are obligated to insure citizens against disasters.

Conclusion Every disaster shows the failures of the management systems and provokes for new plans to reduce further risks. Both managers and the community are expected to be prepared for, respond to, and recovery from all hazards. To make cities resilient to disaster, public education, community participation, inter– disciplinary collaboration, appropriate and strict rules and regulations for disaster risk reduction and management are essential strategies.

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