The Role of Public Participation in Reducing Earthquake Losses in Historical Urban Fabrics

Following the powerful earthquakes in Iran, a large number of historic urban areas of the country have been facing a major identity crisis, triggering a particular and sensitive situation in which any kind of action including reconstruction and restoration works will be faced with the problematic condition. The existing experiences in this regard have demonstrated that there has not been a balance between the governmental resources and the people’s expectations. To this must be added the especial care of historic urban fabric of old cities. More often, most relevant governmental institutes seek to compensate people for loss of their tangible assets. Meanwhile the intangible aspects of the disasters such as local identity, social relations and the continuity of tradition and continuity on the degree of vulnerability are often forgotten. This paper is to survey and highlight the role of public participation in the process and the needs of sensitive working with all categories of society and the necessity of all social classes (before, during and after the crisis) based on the researches and experiences hold held by the authors during past years. Experiences in this regard that show the amount of demands of people and the historic urban quarters in which they live, are much greater than the government abilities and initial facilities. In contrast, the public participation and the ability to discover the local capacities by the public are acceptable to the most vulnerable communities. This potential which is not based on the specific situations and particular periods, is also more often durable and reliable to people. Crises of earthquake not only merely include the periods during and following the time of disaster but also a significant part of necessary actions to take to reduce damages affiliating with the preventive measures. Local residents as valuable potentials are well able to communicate together about the issues that affect their lives, making urgent and vital decisions. The field of these inherent partnerships most of the time involve the periods prior to the disaster to the end of it. Building capacity, creating and strengthening a sense of trust, forming an extensive network of collaborative relationships could reduce the expenses of reconstruction and restoration works and much more importantly the cost of spiritual loses of local communities. These kinds of measures can also prevent some parallel works in this regard. Due to the great volume of activities in the times of crisis required by the government, it should be passed to; and shared with the local people who are aware of the local capacities. This process can be organized via a logical, coherent and detailed plan in which the full knowledge of people regarding their social and cultural environments is considered properly, concluding the maximum efficiency.