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.

Background: Considering the importance of emergency medical practice as a therapeutic specialty taking into account our country’s being the fourth Asian country in regard to frequency of Natural Disasters and 10th country in the world, an emergency reaction program has been prepared and executed in one of referral hospitals in Tehran.Materials and Methods: In the current study a formerly prepared procedure used in European hospitals is taken as the base on which the study is conducted. The modes are then modified as dictated by climatic, cultural and clinical conditions of Iran. An aerial map of Imam Hossein Hospital is used to depict the positions of field units and command centers when it’s partially dilapidated. Necessary training based on this procedure was provided to the staff and the program was followed to the practice phase and a maneuver was then conducted.Results: The program should be prepared in such a way to constitute immediate establishment of crisis committee comprised of: 1) head of the hospital, 2) Para clinic unit (including laboratory, Radiology and blook bank), 3) nursing unit (triage, coordination), 4) guarding unit and sentinels, 5) dispatching and discharging unit, 6) psychiatric and social work unit, 7) freezers and refrigeration unit, 8) emergency evacuation unit, 9) installations and maintenance unit, 10) logistics and transport unit, 11) communication unit, 12) public relations and media unit, 13) reception unit, 14) bio Nucleuchemical unit, 15) specialized units Each unit is headed by a director for whom 3 surrogates should be designated who would immediately take the director’s place if and when necessary.Conclusion: After preparing such plan extensive and comprehensive training should be given to hospital staff or whoever which would be engaged in such reaction. Eventually the readiness of the staff should be evaluated through simulated situations and maneuvers. It’s hoped that god willing we could reduce losses caused by Natural Disasters in the future.

Iran is among the most Disaster-prone countries in the world. From 40 natural Disasters identified in the world, 31 Disasters took place in Iran.Various strategies that can mitigate the impacts of hazards can be adopted through strategic planning. This paper intends to provide suggestions that might help to reduce economic impacts of Disasters.

Background: Disasters are fortunately rare occurrences. However, careful planning and training are necessary in order to adequately prepare individual health and care organizations for such events. This paper aims to investigate Disaster management planning and related exercises of health organizations in Iran.Methods: A quantitative and cross sectional study were performed and 230 questionnaires were distributed among the health managers about comprehensive planning, operational cards or operational standard plans, business contingency plans and continuity plans. Data was analyzed by using SPSS and various statistical tests.Findings: Contingency plans, business continuity plans and action cards need to be employed although there are comprehensive plans within the organizations. Operational committees of Disaster management have not taken appropriate measures to improve the ability and to deal with Disasters.Conclusion: In order to improve the national Disaster management system, some measures should be taken such as re-engineering the current system, implementing appropriate plans and preparedness, compiling standards and protocols, training staff and regular exercises.

A biological attack can begin silently and insidiously. Instead of police, fire and emergency medical services rushing to a clearly apparent incident scene, medical facilities may be the first to see victims of a bioterrorism attack.In this study we proposed a surveillance system to detect, and respond to emergency health threats caused by bioterrorism.We recommended new models of Disaster management for effective responding plan in bioterrorism.

Post Disaster reconstruction in the destructed zones entails the social aspects in addition to the physical and urban aspects, because of the presence of affected people in the very location.The presented research aims to assess the social aspects of the post Disaster conditions in the course of reconstruction, which take into consideration the related social factors in the affected community. The research also looks for the various influential aspects of post Disaster urban planning in order to achieve a different framework for the job.Since the subject might be considered as a new approach, and for the vast and numerous aforementioned aspects in the expertise reference, the research method is based on “Grounded Theory” in order to analyze and categorize the given approaches.The results of theoretical studies have been compiled with the academic expertise viewpoints and with the opinions of Iranian experienced experts who were involved in the course of post war and post natural Disaster reconstruction, through the face to face interviews. In order to benefit a practical implication of the theory, the post Disaster reconstruction process of Manjil-a mountain town in Gilan, north of Iran- after the earthquake in 1990 has been analyzed and reviewed.The fulfillment of the research necessitates; assessment of social questions, collective behavior, individual needs and requests of affected people, in the course of planning for post Disaster reconstructions, and ultimately employment of social capacity, as well as the relations among communal network at the entire level of the affected society.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: After having struck in a major natural Disaster like an earthquake, different organizations run about to decrease losses. The lack of accurate demand information is a common problem that all emergency response organizations have to encounter such a crisis. Evaluation of the City Disaster level is a mean to feed this information to the Disaster response operations. The objective of this research is eschedule a group of experts to assess relief demand. These evaluation teams need to be scheduled to minimize the evaluation time. METHODS: This paper aims to formulate the routing and scheduling of the assessment teams so that real demand information for savings and rescue would be available as soon as possible. The simulated annealing algorithm is used to solve the scheduling problem. FINDINGS: Two cost functions, sum of arrival time and max completion time, were evaluated. The latest is found to perform better in evaluation of the teams performance. CONCLUSION: The performance of the approach is tested on several randomly generated networks and synthesized demand data. The results show a 13 % improvement in the total completion time of operation in comparison with previous approaches.

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Traditional approaches for environmental hazards and Disaster planning under conditions of risk and uncertainty are discussed, including normative expected utility theory, "satisificing", and robustness analyses. Prospect theory, a descriptive technique with roots in psychology, has emerged as an alternative theory of decision making under risk and uncertainty to utility theory and other classic approaches. Over the past quarter century Prospect theory has been increasingly used in various disciplines such as political science, public health, engineering, economics, insurance, and business. This paper aims to introduce and discuss some of the potential implications of prospect theory for environmental hazards and Disaster planning theory and practice. It is argued that prospect theory can significantly enhance environmental hazards and Disaster planning theory and practice, particularly for decision making under uncertainty. Several practical examples are provided to illustrate the strengths of this versatile method.