Background and purpose: Today, in spite of the technological advances, natural disasters, especially earthquakes are among the main concerns of the communities that no method has not been yet devised to prevent or predict it, and the only way to deal with this natural disaster, is to plan before the earthquakes, to reduce its effects through risk management. Old distressed areas of cities need to pay special attention regarding earthquake crisis management because of shortcomings and deficiencies arisen in physical, social and cultural contexts of these areas of cities as well as heritage and historical monuments in this context. The main purpose of writing this article is to develop proper solutions for earthquake disaster management in the old distressed area of Sanandaj city.

Methods: The present study is of cross-sectional type and library and field methods have been used to collect data. In this study, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of old distressed areas of Sanandaj city have been investigated in connection with the earthquake crisis management using SWOT techniques and appropriate strategies have been presented in this field.

Results: The results show that the opportunities are greater than threats and also, weaknesses are greater than strengths in this area and revision strategy followed by defensive strategy are acceptable strategies for optimal management of earthquake disaster within the area. Strategies and recommendations of the study can be useful and effective for earthquake disaster management in the old distressed area of context of Sanandaj city.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that according to the abundance of historic, religious and ancient monuments and buildings in this area, crisis management must be always considered as one of the biggest issues in this regards. So that inattention and neglect can cause damage to historic buildings and monuments, and a lot of injuries and physical damage to residents during an earthquake.