Introduction
Natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, floods and droughts can have sudden or gradual health, social and economic consequences. In recent years, the world has witnessed an increase in these catastrophic events. Therefore, a significant challenge for countries is their vulnerability to natural disasters. This vulnerability necessitates effective disaster management to mitigate impacts, ensure prompt and appropriate responses and achieve recovery in a short time. During sudden natural disasters, authorities face limitations on how to monitor and assess the current situation. Disaster preparedness is crucial for the success of disaster management. Disaster preparedness involves developing knowledge and capabilities of individuals, communities, governments, and humanitarian organizations. Knowledge management is a vital part of disaster management and has a role in increasing the visibility of humanitarian operations, enhancing decision-making ability, accelerating response times, improving coordination, and contributing to improve the capacity of humanitarian actors and communities by supporting the creation and transfer of tacit and explicit knowledge among them. This research aims to identify the indicators of knowledge management affecting natural disaster management, so that the crisis management in Iran can be strengthened by considering these effective factors.

Methods
This is a descriptive survey study. In the qualitative phase, first the effective knowledge management indicators were identified. Then, using the Delphi method, these indicators were provided to a panel of experts. After the necessary corrections, the factors were prioritized. In the quantitative phase, participants were the members of crisis headquarters in Mazandaran province and experts in urban crisis management (n=50). They completed a researcher-made questionnaire. 

Results
The results confirmed the role of knowledge management in three domains: Crisis management process, the specialized equipment for rescue operations, and factors influencing crisis management. The total score was 327 for the crisis management process, 386 for the specialized equipment for rescue operations, and 468 for the factors influencing crisis management. These results indicate that, in evaluating the knowledge management indicators, the section of factors influencing crisis management prevail over the other two section. Therefore, it can be said that in developing strategies, it is better to reduce the shortcomings in natural disaster management by taking advantage of factors influencing crisis management.

Conclusion
Crisis management is important in Iran due to its geographical and weather conditions. Unfortunately, the lack of serious and targeted attention to crisis management has hindered its progress. Knowledge management factors in three domains of crisis management process, specialized equipment for rescue operations and factors influencing crisis management can have an impact on natural disaster management in Iran. 

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
In this study, no experiments on animal or human samples were conducted. All publication ethics were observed.

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

Authors' contributions
The authors equally contributed to preparing this article.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all participants for their cooperation in this research.

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