Seyyed Mohsen Tabatabaei Mozdabadi, secretary of Iran Urban Economics Scientific Association (IUESA), in the live T.V. program of IRINN channel enumerated threats against Iran urban resilience saying “Tehran’s major crises include earthquake, flood, land subsidence and informal economy.”

Noting that urban resilience means a sustainable network of physical systems and human societies, he said resilient cities are flexible against crises and they keep their structure. 

Emphasizing that urban resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience, he added considering that cities have variety of economic dimensions, one of the aspects and subsets of urban resilience can be allotted to economic issues, and consequently sustainable urban revenues can be one of the resilience components of urban economy.

Evaluating the share of sustainable revenues in financing urban projects and services between 20 and 25 percent, the urban expert further said this figure is 65 and 78 percent in metropolises such as Stockholm and Tokyo respectively.

Saying that it has been specified in the second five-year plan of Tehran Municipality to improve the share of sustainable revenues 10 percent annually, he added urban resilience in economic area depends on revising income and cost situation of city management.

We need legal bills in order to have sustainable revenue in cities and monetary and banking institutions should attend and participate in urban development issues as well, Tabatabaei added.

Referring to the world resilient cities, he said Canada enjoys the world three premier cities in terms of resilience i.e. Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary and the most vulnerable ones are Dhaka, Jakarta, Manila, and Cairo in developing countries.

Referring to some of the acute crises of Iran cities, particularly in Tehran Metropolis, Seyyed Mohsen Tabatabaei Mozdabadi, secretary of IUESA said distressed and old fabric, air pollution, earthquake, flood, land subsidence, urban poverty, and informal economy are some of the major natural hazards threatening urban life.

Adding that our country has nearly 60 thousand hectares old textures, he said there are about 3 thousand hectares distressed areas in Tehran Metropolis that may aggravate possible disaster in case of critical condition.

Referring to the issue of land subsidence, he said this is due to inattention to environmental aspects of development since we may consider a crisis in long-term for indiscriminate use of underground water resources and lack of management to control flowing water into underground.

Regarding the statistics about land subsidence in Tehran, the Vice-President of IUESA said researches indicate Tehran subsides between 30 and 37 centimeters annually that it cannot absolutely compare to the world norms.

Stating that one of the other natural hazards in cities, particularly Tehran, is flood, he further said city’s horizontal expansion, particularly in watercourses worsened the situation. Moreover, natural factors such as steep slope, lack of dense vegetation, and rainfall intensity have changed the city into a possible-flooding city.

Most Iran’s cities do not have a resilient roadmap and the capacity of universities and scientific associations should be used in this area. Iran Urban Economics Scientific Association (IUESA) is ready to help in this regard with state municipalities, Tabatabaei said.

Source : Mehr News Agency