Natural disasters in Iran; challenges facing the country during the seventh development plan

Given that natural disasters are unforeseen and unavoidable events, paying attention to these is very important in the country's macro policies and development plans, especially the Seventh Development Plan. For this reason, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the importance and impact of disasters on development policies and programs in order to integrate natural disaster considerations into policies and programs of all sectors. Accordingly, in this article, while introducing the basics of natural disasters, some of the most important natural disasters including earthquakes, floods, droughts and dust storms and their effects are reviewed. In order to provide a better understanding of the situation of Iran in the world’s natural disaster risk map, a comparison of Iran's position in the field of natural disasters with 190 other countries has been done using INFORM global index data. According to this report, Iran is ranked 142 and is severely affected by natural disasters and suffers huge losses annually. Therefore, on the eve of the seventh development plan, strategies, policies, programs and measures to reduce the effects and consequences of natural hazards in the framework of disaster risk management and reducing the effects and consequences of each natural hazard should be given special attention. In this article, in addition to analyzing natural disaster management in Iran, some solutions are proposed for the Seventh Development Plan.