The 4th Expert Group Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction was held on 26-29 November 2023 in Tehran. Organized and hosted by the Geological Survey of Iran (GSI), the meeting brought together experts responsible for disaster risk reduction from Member States as well as representatives from regional and international institutions, including the Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), ECO Regional Center for Risk Management of Natural Disasters (ECO-RCRM), International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES) and Regional Education and Research Center on Earthquake Risk Management and Resilience for West and Central Asia (RCECWA).
The meeting discussed the implementation status of the ECO Regional Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (ECORFDRR) and ongoing projects on disaster risk reduction as well as latest developments on disaster risk reduction in the ECO Region. The discussions made during the meeting also featured certain ways and possible collective measures for combining regional skills, expertise and international practices to fuel the regional efforts for preventing and minimizing the effects of such adverse events.
On the sidelines of the event, field visits were organized to exchange experience in the field of Natural Hazards. The participants visited International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), Advanced Earthquake Engineering Laboratories (AEEL) in Sohanak, Tehran, and Earthquake Precursor Station in Tehran.
Visiting the Kashan subsidence area, the experts also discussed about the factors affecting subsidence, conditions of the underground water in the region, general state of geology, geomorphology, and the relationship between the plain, the mountains and the playa in the areas located on the edge of the central deserts of Iran, as well as the lack of underground water resources.
