BACKGROUND: The passive defense approach is one of the approaches in planning and organizing cities and residential complexes with the aim to reduce environmental hazards. Given the vital and sensitive position of cities, while preparing against military invasions, this approach provides special capabilities to cope with natural and human crises to a large extent. METHODS: This was an applied study conducted with a descriptive-analytical method. Data were collected reviewing the relevant texts, sources, books, and articles, as well as examining maps, interviews, and observations. The data were then analyzed using the geographic information system (GIS) software. In the next step, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis technique was employed to investigate the strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats of Rasht City, Iran. RESULTS: Rasht City accounts for a considerable part of the population, facilities, and services of Guilan Province, Iran, which will experience great damage in case of occurrence of a natural or human disaster. The SWOT analysis results revealed that the strategy obtained was of a defensive nature. CONCLUSION: On the basis of the results obtained from the investigation of the sensitive land uses, it can be stated that the location of the land uses (particularly, sensitive and important ones) in Rasht does not follow the passive defense principles. In addition, the central areas of the city are more vulnerable due to the density of the important and sensitive uses in these areas. This implies that the city center is the most vulnerable area of Rasht in terms of the passive defense approach
