Our story

Earthquakes are not surprises in our region; the surprise is how differently the first hours can unfold depending on decisions made long before. Our founding team — earthquake-engineering researchers and disaster-risk specialists — spent years studying how rescue teams, hospitals and volunteers actually behave after major earthquakes, and how rarely that behavior matches the plans on paper.

So we built a way to test the plans. Starting from research code, we developed an agent-based simulation environment that places thousands of interacting responders, patients and volunteers inside a GIS model of a real city — fed by real data, from satellite-derived damage maps to field reports. What began as an academic tool grew into a platform used for scenario studies, exercises and response planning with municipal partners and research institutions.

Today PayaShahr combines earthquake engineering, geospatial technology and simulation science with a single purpose: emergency response systems that are more effective, more informed and more adaptive — before the next real emergency.