Business Intelligence Reduces Cities’ Vulnerability to Natural Disasters

Seyed Mohsen Tabatabaei Mozdabadi, Secretary General of the Iranian Urban Economics Scientific Association, emphasized the role of business intelligence in urban management foresight and earthquake prediction in an interview with Mehr reporter, stating: “In the current era when cities are facing rapid population growth, infrastructure expansion, and increasing natural hazards, business intelligence has emerged as a key tool for data-based decision-making and urban foresight.”

He added: “By analyzing urban, economic, and environmental big data, this technology allows urban managers to make more informed, faster, and more efficient decisions. In many countries, including Japan, South Korea, Italy, Turkey, and the Netherlands, business intelligence is used as the main infrastructure for smart city management.”

The Secretary General of the Iranian Urban Economics Scientific Association stated: For example, in the city of Seoul, a system based on business intelligence has been designed that analyzes traffic data, air pollution, and energy consumption in real time so that management decisions can be made in real time.

He noted: In Rome, BI systems have been used to analyze population, water resources, and urban infrastructure development, increasing investment returns and reducing the costs of making wrong decisions.

Tabatabaei Mozabadi said: In addition to general city management, business intelligence also plays a significant role in the field of forecasting natural disasters and earthquakes. Countries such as Japan, China, New Zealand, and Turkey have been able to analyze seismographic data, ground structure, building resistance, and population density in the form of smart dashboards by using business intelligence systems.

He continued: This information helps managers identify risks before an earthquake occurs and plan to reduce losses. For example, in Japan, a business intelligence system integrates earthquake sensor data with urban information and issues accurate and regional warnings in the event of an earthquake.

The Secretary General of the Iranian Urban Economics Scientific Association stated: In Chengdu, China, BI is also used to design emergency evacuation routes and predict urban vulnerable points. After recent earthquakes, Turkey has also developed integrated analytical systems to collect seismic, demographic, and construction data in a central database so that management decisions can be made faster and more targeted.

A faculty member of the Islamic Azad University added: The use of business intelligence in earthquake forecasting and urban management has several advantages, including increasing the speed of emergency response, reducing financial and human losses, improving construction planning, and enhancing coordination between urban and relief organizations.

Tabatabaei Mozdabadi said: Data analysis helps engineers and managers identify high-risk areas and prioritize more accurately in urban reconstruction or development projects. On the other hand, if business intelligence technologies are not used, cities will face challenges such as late decision-making, lack of coordination between institutions, waste of financial resources, and increased losses from unexpected events.

He stated: The lack of data-driven systems causes decisions to be made solely based on experience or guesswork, while business intelligence data provides a scientific and realistic picture of the urban situation and future risks.

The Secretary-General of the Iranian Urban Economics Scientific Association continued: In a general framework, business intelligence in urban management and earthquake foresight can be summarized in three main stages: first, collecting data from urban, environmental, and seismic sources; Second, data analysis and processing to identify patterns and predict risks; and third, smart urban decision-making to increase resilience and reduce damage.

A faculty member at Islamic Azad University noted: The conceptual model of the impact of business intelligence includes data input, business intelligence analysis and processing, scenario prediction and modeling, smart urban decision-making and resilience, sustainability and damage reduction, and shows the relationship between the key stages of business intelligence and the final results in urban sustainability and safety.

Tabatabaei Mozabadi clarified: Data input includes seismic, infrastructure, population and environmental data. Data is refined by BI tools and risk patterns are identified, and crisis scenarios and vulnerable points are identified by data simulation.

He continued: Smart decision-making includes developing safety solutions, crisis management and emergency evacuation routes based on data, and the ultimate goal of the model is to increase safety and reduce financial and human losses.

The Secretary General of the Iranian Urban Economics Scientific Association concluded by noting: “Ultimately, business intelligence is not only a technological tool, but also a strategy for building sustainable, safe, and smart cities. The future of cities depends on the extent to which they use real, analytics-based data, and the more advanced and accurate these systems become, the more secure and quality of life citizens will be.”

Mehr News Agency