This document summarizes the achievements of the Building and Housing Research Center (BHRC) in Iran in promoting urban resiliency. It discusses how BHRC has provided effective data and tools to support risk reduction planning, including seismic hazard maps and building codes. It also outlines BHRC's research on topics like urban regeneration, housing for low-income groups, and post-disaster reconstruction best practices. BHRC offers training programs to disseminate this knowledge among planners, architects and engineers to strengthen resiliency in Iranian settlements.

1. I S L A M I C R E P U B L I C O F I R A N
M I N I S T R Y O F R O A D S A N D U R B A N D E V E L O P M E N T
R O A D , H O U S I N G & U R B A N D E V E L O P M E N T R E S E A R C H C E N T E R ( B H R C )
Achievements of BHRC in urban
resiliency
Ghazal Raheb
Head of Architecture and Urban Planning Institute, BHRC
Mahta Mirmoghtadaee
Head of Theoretical Studies in Architecture and Urban Planning
Department, BHRC

2. Definition
As the“city”is considered a
dynamic system, the ability
of this system to return to
stable equilibrium point
after disruption is
“RESILIENCY”.

3. Environmental management and risk reduction
Two determining factors threatening Contemporary
human settlements are:
 Deterioration of environment
 Natural disasters
Deterioration of environment increases the adverse
impacts of natural disaster.
Current human life style has put more people and
structures under risk and more pressure on
environment. Reducing natural disaster risks and
achieving “livable”, “Sustainable” and “Resilient” urban
and rural settlements are dependent on environmental
management.

4. Analytical review of settlements resiliency in disasters
(South Khorasan eartquake- 1997)
Unsustainable location:
Locating on the slopes, Instable soils and , high risk zones

5. Unsustainable development:
Construction on the river bank
Destroying forests in highlands
was leading to flooding
Analytical review of settlements resiliency in
disasters
(Flood in Neka- 1999)

6. Unsustainable urban form
Compactness of neighborhood in
Bam after earthquake
Open spaces in urban fabric,
Baravat (a town near Bam) after earthquake
Analytical review of settlements resiliency in disasters
(Bam earthquake- 2003)

7. Unsustainable location: Establishing
villages in valleys and steeps
Unsustainable and poor access
to some villages
Analytical review of settlements resiliency in disasters
(Azarbayjan earthquake- 2012)

8. Planning for
increasing
Resiliency in
settlements
1. Prevention
2. Rescue and Relief
3. Rehabilitation
and Reconstruction

9. First step:
Planning for
prevention of
settlements
against
disasters
Introducing some of the main achievements
of BHRC:
 providing effective data bases for risk reduction
strategies and plans
 Providing building codes for risk reduction
 Local indicators for risk management and
providing codes and regulations for risk
reduction in built environment
 Research on urban regeneration and low-income
housing
 Training courses for planners, architects and
civil engineers

10. providing effective data bases for risk reduction
strategies and plans (introducing some activities)
 Control and Maintenance of Iran Strong Ground Motion
Network
 Classification of Rural Settlements based on rural
housing types
 Preparation of seismotectonic map of Iran on scale of
1:2500000
 Preparation of seismic zonation hazard map of Iran
(Standard 2800 annex)
 Information layer project in earthquake disaster
management
 Microzonation of urban regions

11. Distribution of Iran Strong Ground Motion Network

12.  Zone 1: The Oman Sea and
the Persian Gulf littoral
 Zone 2: Caspian Sea fringes
 Zone 3: Mountainous
Kurdish settling areas of
West
 Zone 4: Azari settling areas
in North West
 Zone 5: Mid Alborz district
and eastern Zagros plains
 Zone 6: Settled Nomads and
permanent residents of the
western Zagros foothills
 Zone 7: Central and eastern
plains of Iran
 Zone 8: Central highlands
and plains in the central and
eastern mountainous fringe
areas
Basic (or lead) rural housing formation “types” zones in Iran

13. Seismic microzonation hazard map in Iran

14. Providing building codes for risk reduction
(introducing some activities)
 Iranian code for seismic resistant design of
buildings (standard No. 2800)
 Fire protection building code
 Evaluating the strength of buildings and
presenting technical comments relevant to
retrofitting existing buildings
 Passive defense strategy

15. Research on urban regeneration and low-income housing
 Infill development
 Evaluation of urban
regeneration projects
 Comparative studies on
urban regeneration projects
 Studies on the role of public
participation
 Introduction of best
practices
 Design consideration for
low-income housing
 Documentation of low-
income housing projects

16. Theories and best practices of urban regeneration (Iran and
Meddle East , North African countries)
Training courses of planners, architects and civil
engineers

17. THE SECRETARIAT OF DOCUMENTING
BEST PRACTICES IN DISASTER
REDUCTION AND POST-DISASTER
RECONSTRUCTION

18. A best practice is a method or technique that has
consistently shown results superior to those achieved
with other means, and that is used as a benchmark. A
"best" practice can evolve to become better as
improvements are discovered. Best practice describes
the process of developing and following a standard way
of doing things that multiple organizations can use.
Definition of best practices

19. Objectives of the secretariat
The secretariat is established with the objective of
documenting the best practices in mitigation of
disaster risks before and after occurrence in Asian-
Pacific countries, which includes two steps:
 Measurements taken before a disaster strikes with the objective
of increasing built-environment resilience;
 Measurements taken in post-disaster construction with
developmental approach and with the objective of improving
resilience of new physical environment and in fact as an
opportunity for pursuing sustainable development.

20.  Measurements on spatial and physical regeneration of built-
environment in urban and rural settlements;
 Measurements on improving access network in urban and
rural settlements;
 Measurements on improving infrastructures of water, waste
water and energy supply in rural and urban settlements;
 Measurements on strengthening and reinforcement of
important structures and residential buildings;
 Rules and regulations;
 Management, evaluation and control quality systems;
 Conducted pilot projects with the objective of dissemination
and generalization
 Training programs for enhancing general and technical
knowledge in the above mentioned fields.
Documentation-themes

21. We look forward to your participation!
Please contact us:
raheb@bhrc.ac.ir
raheb@iust.ac.ir
Thank you!