Advances in Environmental Biology Tabriz)

Advances in Environmental Biology, 8(22) November 2014, Pages: 843-848
AENSI Journals
Advances in Environmental Biology
ISSN-1995-0756
EISSN-1998-1066
Journal home page: http://www.aensiweb.com/AEB/
Investigating Temporary Settlements after Disasters (Case Study: the City of
Tabriz)
1Masoud
4Saeed
Mohammadian Beiragh, 2Amirabas Mohammadiyan Beyragh, 3Mohammad Moeinfar,
Mohammadi Alborzi
1
Department of civil engineering, Islamic Azad university, Miandoab Branch, Miandoab, Iran.
Department of civil engineering, Islamic Azad university, Elkhichi Branch, Elkhichi, Iran
3
Sama technical and vocational traning college, Islamic Azad University miandoab branch, Miandoab, Iran
4
Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Marand Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marand, Iran
2
ARTICLE INFO
Article history:
Received 25 October 2014
Received in revised form 26 November
2014
Accepted 29 December 2014
Available online 15 January 2015
Keywords:
crisis,
settlement,
temporary
settlement, Tabriz, homeless society
ABSTRACT
Natural disasters threat humans’ lives every moment. Due to the smallest damages due
to these disasters, a large number of refugees came to big cities; therefore, how they
temporarily should be settled is one of the problems in planning of crisis management,
consequently, humans are faced with many challenges and problems due these natural
disasters (earthquakes, floods, firing, and etc.) and human-made events (wars, tribal
clashes, and etc.). Losing ones’ settlements due to the occurrence of disasters as a form
of a social problem always has appeared in different types and people have suffered
from its main burden in such a way that humans, mostly because of fear, insecurity and
the possibility of death, move to other regions and leave forcefully their devastated their
own settlements. Or in case of the sense of security, they stay with those ruins. The
strategies available in constructing temporary settlements for the homeless due to recent
disasters in Iran indicate the executives’ and planners’ little knowledge of economic,
social, cultural and environmental consequences. The unsuccessful experience of
constructing emergency and unsystematic camps in Bam City, after the 2003
earthquake, indicated thewaste of investments in Iran. Accordingly, the importance of
investigating scientific basics and documentation of the challenges of settlement and
explaining the strengths and weaknesses as well as the necessity of doing independent
studies along with specialized discussions about shelters after disasters seem important.
In the present study, regardingthe seismicity of Tabriz City, it is tried to investigate the
state of the region for appropriate places in case of crises.
© 2014 AENSI Publisher All rights reserved.
To Cite This Article: Masoud Mohammadian Beiragh, Amirabas Mohammadiyan Beyragh, Mohammad Moeinfar, Saeed Mohammadi
Alborzi., Investigating Temporary Settlements after Disasters (Case Study: the City of Tabriz). Adv. Environ. Biol., 8(22), 843-848, 2014
INTRODUCTION
Designing, planning and providing the minimum standards for emergency and temporary settlement are
among the primary rights and requirements of those who are exposed to disasters or conflicts. In this arena,
shelter as water, health, food and psychological care, has a determining role in keeping and saving human lives
in the initial stages of the occurrence of disasters. The existence of shelter for security against diseases and
protection of different threats is a vital issue and for protecting the status of human beings in the family and
social framework in difficult conditions, it seems necessary. In fact, the objective of constructing shelters is the
selection of appropriate places and planning for providing personal, family and social primary needs for creating
a healthy, safe, and relatively convenient place for living. Obviously, cooperation and participation of the
homeless contribute effectively to researching this issue and by designing and planning appropriately and
logically, their potential negative effects reduce to a great extent. Now, regarding the fact that Azerbaijan and
particularly Tabriz are located on Tabriz faultand always are threatened by earthquakes, the problems due to this
disaster are investigated and necessary suggestions are presented.
Shelter after disaster:
For years when the issue of temporary shelters after the disaster has been discussed by organizations and
their authorities. Disaster Relief Coordination Office of the United Nations in 1982 declared that: it can be
Corresponding Author: Masoud Mohammadian Beiragh, MA in International Business Administration, Business
Administration Department, Islamic Azad University, Abhar Branch, Abhar, Iran
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Advances in Environmental Biology, 8(22) November 2014, Pages: 843-848
ensured that over previous decades, emergency helps regarding medical affairs, nutrition and relief after disaster
have been increasing significantly, but, an important part has not been appropriately improved and it is the
emergency settlement or particularly shelters after disasters. Eleven years after declaring this issue, United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1993, in addition to emphasizing the importance of the process of
designing and constructing shelters, declared that: for another time, it should be declared that the design of a
shelter which is compatible with extensive requirements of management after crises and injured people has not
been provided. Furthermore, the lack of experienced organizations in producing shelters is required greatly.
Therefore, what is highly required is to develop a comprehensive strategy by applying favorable standard which
using specific methods of designing temporary settlements in the least period of time, they may be ready to be
utilized. Five years after 1998, in the annual report of International Federation of Red Cross, a list of problems
available in the section of shelters is presented as follows:
 Due to the presence of different institutions in providing shelters, the existence of coordination, capacity
building and competence among them seems necessary.
 The lack of sufficient space for settling the homeless imposes doubled pressure on the local society and the
environment of the region.
 Service providing to a mass population of the homeless requires disciplined procurement.
 The existence of standard materials and different kinds of shelters may engender problems.
 Security problems in the communities of the homeless are increasing.
In recent years, inappropriate planning in building temporary settlements has had a lot of negative effects
among which the worst instance occurred in the West Africa as a great disaster of that country and even the
region. In contrast, appropriate temporary shelters not only have positive effects on the affected society, but also
provides the reinforcement of physical protection structures and improvement of their living conditions. In the
newest research conducted in 2006 in UN/OCHA, one of the UN humanitarian agencies called new approach to
transitional settlements instead of paying attention to temporary settlement as a single space, instances such as
security and protection, especially for women, children and other vulnerable groups and appropriate positioning
for settlements have been considered as follows: the type of shelters in disasters, the mode of the settlement of
local ethnic groups, social care centers for homeless people, rural and urban self-help settlements, undisciplined
(emergency) camps, and designed and pre-established camps.
The process of research on temporary settlements:
It should be noted that no more than 5 decades of the life of studies conducted on shelters after disasters
have passed and these studies have mostly been on technical issues. Among these studies, studies conducted on
social, economic, cultural and environmental issues ofshelters are newer and their records refer back to 70’s.
Map 1: The position of Tabriz City in Iran.
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One of these researches is on emergency settlements, perspectives and cases (1977) conducted by some of
the theorists in a high or limited scale. In 1978, the book Shelter after Disaster baying Davis as one of the
experts of disasters and reconstruction was published and after 4 years, And Disaster Relief Coordination Office
of the United Nations published a valuable book with the same title. In both books, the significant importance
and unique role of shelter as the main axis of relief plans after disaster was investigated and the different
policies of supplying it was referred to. In this line, decisive and crucial conferences, first in 1981 and the
second in 1992 with similar titles of Disasters and Small Residential Buildings were held in Polytechnic
University of Oxford, UK. This conferences summarized and explained different approaches to shelter and its
evolutionary process in a decade. The set of articles presented in both conferences was about the feasibility and
difficulty of the issue of shelter in different situations of disasters. The valuable book in danger (1994) presents
theoretical framework and different models and frameworks of policy making about shelter. Furthermore,
another important book titled as disaster damages houses (1998) criticizes the experiences of designing and
building shelters in the US during five recent decades and investigates the relationship between the policies of
development and the process of providing shelters. One year later in 1999, another resource called designed
disasters (1999) summarizes the theoretical discussions and its role in the process of sustainable development of
different societies. The newest document is a book which investigates the evolutionary process from 1982 to
2006 and analyzes the important developments and changes in settlements, shelters and housing after disasters.
In this period, action plans were developed by private institutes such as Oxfam and UN institutions.
Status quo:
Regarding the fact that the City of Tabriz is one of the biggest cities of Iran and now, it has a population
more than two million people, in case of the smallest event, in addition to the death of thousands of people,
more will be homeless. Considering the status quo of the City of Tabriz, no place or space is not available for
responding people in case of unexpected disasters such as floods, earthquakes, typhoons, and etc. other than
parks and green spaces. Therefore, it is necessary that spaces should be prepared for these potential cases and
events.
Table 1: The extent of Tabriz in different periods.
Year
The extent of the city
1909
700
1966
1770
1976
4580
1986
14000
1996
15000
2005
23000
Implications
11000 Hs populated region
12000 Hs (urban and supra-urban users)
Resources: the Management of Organizing Marginalization of Tabriz Municipality (2005)
Table 2: The population of the City of Tabriz in different censuses.
Population
200000
403000
598000
971000
1191000
1400000
Resource: Resources: the Management of Organizing Marginalization of Tabriz Municipality (2005)
Year
1900
1966
1976
1986
1996
2005
Topography of Tabriz:
Slope classes of the area of Tabriz are presented in the following graph. According to the mentioned graph,
the highest value related to class 0-2% and the least value is related to class 24-30%. The large part of Tabriz is
located in a plain with the same name and its area is smooth and without serrations. The more the slope, the less
its area percentage. It means that the highest slope percentages have the least areas and they have an utterly
reverse process; the more the slope percentage, the less the area.
Vulnerability of Tabriz of natural disaster:
The plateau of Iran is one of the most disaster-prone areas and Tabriz is one of the vulnerable regions to
unexpected events due to its geographical and topographical structure. Earthquakes and floods are among main
natural disasters which this ancient city has been faced with over history and financial damages and loss of life
have been imposed on this city. This city have suffered the most damages from devastating earthquakes of the
history of Iran in such a way that the occurrence of 12 historical earthquakes have devastated this city totally!
For example, during the devastating earthquake in 1780, 50000 people died and during another one in 1721,
about 40000 people were dead. The occurrence of different floods in this city indicates its vulnerability of this
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Advances in Environmental Biology, 8(22) November 2014, Pages: 843-848
natural disaster and the occurrence of floods in 1910 and 1931 causeda lot of losses of life and property for this
city particularly parts located on the path of the Mehranehrood River and historical textures and the market
complex.
The proportion of the total area (percent)
Slope classes (percent)
Graph 1: Graph showing percentage area of the slope classes of Tabriz.
Table 3: Devastating Earthquakes of Tabriz.
Year
858
1041
1042
1527
1721
1779
1780
Devastating intension
Total destruction of the city
Intense earthquake
Intense earthquake
Intense earthquake
Very intense earthquake
Intense earthquake
Intense earthquake
Casualties (killed)
50 thousand people
50 thousand people
50 thousand people
50 thousand people
50 thousand people
50 thousand people
Research methodology:
Revision and review of experiences similar with studies on shelter after disaster canhave an appropriate
framework for investigating shelter deeply and Davis and Aisan emphasize and declare that the possibility using
the experiences obtained from the studies conducted on shelter related to the reduction of the danger and access
to different models and developing a theoretical framework can be provided. In fact, the origin of researches
related to disasters in the North America are studies that Prince conducted in relation with Explosion of Halifax
of Nova Scotia. In December 1917, a French ship carrying ammunition to Monte Blante, crashed to a Belgian
ship containing donations to the needy of Halifax in Nova Scotia. A young Canadian student called Samuel
Henry Prince who were studying graduate studies, reported a complete and comprehensive report of the reaction
operation at the time of the occurrence of this disaster and how the injured were evacuated from the danger
zone. This report was the first experimental study of the reaction to unexpected disasters in which principles and
concepts of social sciences are used. However, during the years of capitalist crises and the World War II,
researches and studies were conducted regarding the methods of reaction to events and disasters. Since that
time, the basis of research done on disasters was founded and limited, but scientifically fruitful, studies were
conducted by academic researchers. After that, continuous and effective studies on social aspects of disasters
were conducted at the late 60’s and early 70’s. Quarantelli, the well-known theorist of disasters, writes that 50’s
was the beginning of studies on disasters in the US. 60’s provided the grounds for doing research. 70’s was
jump to more principled, comprehensive and extensive fight with disasters. It should be noted that researches
related to disasters were started firstly with technical and engineering tendencies and among these studies
related to shelter, they are relatively newer. Davis, in a conference held in 1982, officially declares that our
knowledge of settlement after disasters has been very little and the lack of principled research on shelter is a
serious gap in knowledge related to disasters. In this regard, Quarantelli states that regarding shelter after
disaster, in case of starting studies, I faced with two main problems, the first was little scientific and logical
writings available in this regard and the second was that the available researches did not enjoy sufficient
comprehension both qualitatively and quantitatively and the possibility of applied use of it in such a way that
one can obtain complete results in not available.
Conclusion and suggestions:
Regarding the conducted investigated, it can be concluded that the lack of planning in temporary settlement
can engender bigger problems. And also any place cannot be suitable for favorable settlement; therefore, by
conducted investigations, suggested places for temporary settlement after disasters are considered, among which
the Great Park of Tabriz in the west of the city is one of them. This park with an area of 800 Hs and El-Gölü
Park in the east of Tabriz can be the best choices for temporary settlement of people after the occurrence of
disasters. The advantages of these two can be discussed in this way that one is in the west and the other is
located in the east. The great advantage of these positions is the feasibility of displacing people and another
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advantage for these parks is their extensive area which can cover a large population of people. In addition, these
places, due to their accessibility to vehicles and helicopters, provides the possibility of rescuing and providing
services for people and the creating of emergency facilities.
Map 2: The suggested area for temporary settlement of the potential homeless.
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