TEHRAN – Minister of Science, Research, and Technology Hossein, Simaei-Sarraf, and the Secretary-General of Iran’s National Commission for UNESCO, Hassan Fartousi, inaugurated the UNESCO Chair in Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Engineering at Kharazmi University on Tuesday.

The chair is established on a synergistic approach aligned with the Sendai Global Framework for Risk Reduction, the Sustainable Development Goals, and UNESCO’s approaches to expanding education, science, technology, knowledge exchange, climate considerations, and the development of sustainable communities, msrt.ir reported.

According to Kharazmi University, the establishment of the chair represents a scientific and strategic imperative, given the current national and regional conditions in the country, such as climate change, the growing complexity of hazards, the expansion of human settlements, technological and human-induced risks, and the cascading effects of disasters.

This UNESCO Chair develops effective methods to assess and mitigate risks from natural hazards to existing and new school infrastructure, contributing to improved equitable access to safe learning environments for children in vulnerable communities, ensuring continuity of education services, and reducing life losses. The Chair has created a community for resilience engineering exceeding 3,000 members from more than 100 countries, instrumental in sharing knowledge to support disaster risk reduction initiatives.

Disasters are not anymore natural; invest in resilience

Disasters are not natural but the result of wrong decisions and mismanagement; funding for disaster risk reduction today will contribute to safety and resilience in the future.
Floods, devastating storms, droughts, forest fires, dried-up wetlands, and earthquakes are examples of natural hazards that occur all over the world. Still, it is the increased intensity of hazards that is not considered natural.

Iran is a disaster-prone country that has faced almost all types of hazards, from earthquakes and floods to droughts, landslides, and dust. About 33 out of the total 50 types of natural disasters known in the world have so far occurred in the country. The diversity of disasters has adversely affected the country’s resilience, highlighting the need for disaster risk management more than ever.

Environmental resilience requires coordination between human development and ecological capacity. Policymaking and resource exploitation should not exceed the limits of ecosystems.

However, over the past few decades, some development activities have been inconsistent with the capacity of the environment and ecosystems; land use change, overexploitation of water and soil resources, and mismanagement of forests and natural resources have lowered the ability of ecosystems to recover and cope with disasters, making human societies more vulnerable.

Moreover, the impacts of disasters are far greater on low-income groups, those living in marginalized areas, and rural communities. Resilience is, above all, a social and justice-oriented issue; the involvement of local communities, universities, and the private sector in decision-making processes will contribute to the development of sustainable preventive strategies.

MT/MG