Natural Disasters in the Middle-East and North Africa With a Focus on Iran: ۱۹۰۰ to ۲۰۱۵

Background: Many types of natural disasters are sudden and calamitous events that create a large socioeconomic burden with significant negative impact on health care, social infrastructure, and the environment; especially in the low and middle income countries; therefore, it is necessary to reduce or control this kind of disasters by understanding the specific risks and negative impacts. Recognition of disaster events helps us to plan effectively, coordinate and invest on disaster risk reduction projects. Materials and Methods: The current article was a narrative review of the epidemiological data available on natural disasters in MNA countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia,and Yemen) and their trends from ۱۹۰۰ to ۲۰۱۵. The statistical data were obtained from international disaster sources (EM-DAT, DesInventar and Gapminder) and literature reviews of international reports and journals. To find related articles from journals, data bases such as Pubmed, Escopus, Google Scholar, and SID were searched for the following key words: natural disasters, Middle-East, disasters and Middle-East, disasters and North Africa, natural disasters and Middle-East, natural disasters and North Africa, and disaster and trend. Results: In the last century, more than ۸۰% of natural disaster events occurred in MNA and concentrated in just ۹ countries as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, and Egypt. Hydrological disasters (flood and landslide) with ۶۳% had the largest share in ۲۰۱۵ and were more than that of the last century. In ۲۰۱۵, mortality rate of flood with ۱۱% and landslides with ۳۲% had increasing trend compared to last century. In the last ۲ years, conversely, damages and victims from flood were about ۸۵%, which were more than those of the last century, but in landslides no change was observed. In ۲۰۱۵, meteorological disasters such as storms and extreme temperatures represented ۱۹% of the total disaster occurrence that had an increasing trend compared to that of the last century with ۱۲%. Extreme temperatures with ۵۷% of all deaths and storm with ۷۲% of total victims had the highest levels among other natural disasters in this period. In the previous years, the total number of death, affected people, and damages of metrological disasters had increasing trend compared to the last century. In addition, in ۲۰۱۵, the frequency of climatological disasters (drought) and geophysical disasters (earthquake) did not change significantly, but the number of affected people, deaths, and damages from drought and earthquakes had a noticeable decrease compared to those of the last century. Conclusion: The trends of natural disasters frequency from ۱۹۰۰ to ۲۰۱۵ in MNA has increased and effective mitigation and preparedness is necessary, both at individual and governance levels. This issue in the middle income and developing countries in MNA should be considered as a high priority in national planning.