Iran: Tehran Disaster Resilience Center (TDRC) launch

The Inauguration Ceremony of the Tehran Disaster Resilience Center (TDRC) was held in the presence of Deputy Minister of Interior and the Head of National Disaster Management Organization (NDMO), Mr. Najar, on April 6, 2015. The center, which is the first urban resilience center at national level, is affiliated to TDMMO and was opened officially on the same day.

The inauguration ceremony convened heads of disaster management related organizations, representatives of TDMMO Technical Committees, Tehran Mayor Deputies and other officials of Tehran Municipality and International officials of Japan Embassy, UNDP and JICA. The Head of NDMO, Mr. Najar emphasised the importance of urban resilience and how its affected population change in the country. He said that the occurrence of natural disasters should not be ignored or underestimated, but rather, disaster risk reduction and disaster management issues must be part of daily life. For instance in case of the air pollution in Ahvaz, when it first occurred, the mass media covered it in the news and highlighted the problem to officials and the public. Although it is a matter being addressed at the moment, the issue has since gradually faded from public memory.

Mr. Najar added that urban resilience, especially in Tehran, is of great importance due to the population density of Tehran and the need to improve public safety in the cities. He stated that since preventing the actual occurrence of a natural disaster was impossible, making use of knowledge, theory and effort on one hand, and motivating and attracting public participation for safe construction on the other hand, would reduce the damage from disasters. He also expressed hope that in making cities resilience, cities could be prepared and made safe through increased public participation and official support

He appreciated measures taken by TDMMO in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Disaster Management (DM) and said that government of I. R. Iran and Tehran Municipality would both support renovation of old buildings and that to date, appropriate measures had been taken in this regard. Annually, 200,000 units are scheduled to be renovated at rural level and presently the number exceeds 1,700,000 rural units at national level.

In the opening speech of the ceremony, taking into account approval of the Sendai Disaster Risk Reduction Framework (2015- 2030), the president of TDMMO, Dr. Sadeghi, said that Tehran Disaster Resilience Center (TDRC) was established in line with the second 5- year plan of the Tehran Municipality in order to make use of successful experiences globally and best practices in urban resilience. He stated that international and national elites and experts had been invited to cooperate with the center to localize these global achievements to Tehran's context and at national level.

He added that urban resilience is a new process in disaster management knowledge. In the past, more attention was paid to preparedness and response but it has since shifted to resilience, mitigation and disaster risk reduction in the present day.

Dr. Sadeghi said that urban risks have increased and each day brought exposure to new risks. Therefore, it is a requirement to identify risks, and plan for risk reduction and elimination. This would require carrying out research at national, regional and international levels.

Taking into account the importance of TDRC establishment, TDMMO senior advisor, Dr. Ostad Taghizadeh stated that the lack of a resilience center at national level was detrimental to the country and the center would help in sharing national experiences with other related organizations at international level. He added that resilience means each community or human environment should, firstly, be able to withstand disasters, secondly, keep it's original function and survive and lastly, be able to build back better.

As the event continued, the Head of the IFRC Program for Disaster Risk Reduction in Urban Regions and the International Advisor of TDMMO, Dr. Mohaghegh, elaborated on international cooperation for DM and DRR and the City Resilience Profiling Program.

Other experts and invitees presented their achievements from the Third World Conference on Disaster Reduction and Emergency Response (WCDRR), which was held on March 2015 in Sendai, Japan.

Finally, members of the Scientific Council of TDRC were introduced to the audience and their assignments submitted to them by the TDMMO president and high ranking officials from the NDMO and the National Passive Defense Organization.