This study was conducted to investigate the role of internal controls in improving risk management in municipalities. The study is applied in terms of its purpose, descriptive-analytical and correlational in nature, and quantitative in terms of its implementation method. The statistical population consisted of 180 managers and employees of the finance, budget, internal audit, supervision, and contracts units of Tehran Municipality Region 1, of which 120 were selected as samples by stratified random sampling. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale. The data were analyzed with SMART PLS version 4 software and using structural equation modeling. The findings showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between internal controls and risk management (β=0.781, p<0.001). The structural model showed that internal controls explain 61 percent of the changes in risk management (R²=0.610). Among the dimensions, control activities (β=0.237), risk assessment (β=0.214), and monitoring (β=0.203) had the greatest impact on risk management. This study provides new empirical evidence on the relationship between internal control and risk management in the context of Iranian municipalities and validates the COSO framework in local public organizations. The findings can be used by municipal managers, internal audit units, and urban management policymakers in designing internal control and risk management systems. Combining internal control and risk management in the context of municipalities using advanced psychometric indices (AVE, HTMT, factor loadings) and structural equation modeling with SMART PLS is one of the innovations of this study.