Publication Date:
2020-03-23
Description:
Since the early ages of humankind, safety and security has been a critical
issue against the forces of nature. However, history has always proven the
power of nature over humankind in certain regions on Earth for centuries.
Indeed, this is a never-ending war between Earth and its inhabitants, namely
us, human beings. Humankind’s organization (cities, roads, lifelines etc.) in
the nature has never been perfect within the view of environmental pollution
and excessive consumption of the resources. Particularly, the quality of civil
engineering design and practice is strongly affected from the social and
economic background of the country. The societies in rapid development
claim excessive demands in terms of housing and transportation. Such
demands may create vulnerable urban areas if the economic and social
conditions are not in balance or harmony. Thus, nature should not be blamed
as the scapegoat in the regions where disasters claim human and economic
losses. In fact, the reason for the losses is nothing else than humankind itself.
A rational question arises then about how to overcome human and economic
loss due to natural disasters. The idea of determining the most vulnerable
items in urban areas and reconstructing with the most reliable equivalents
may seem very challenging. Even though the macroeconomic implications
are very complex, reconstructing the items in densely populated areas is the
most effective mitigation action against disasters in the short term. Having
learnt lessons from the major earthquake disasters in the heart of the industry
and mostly dense urban areas, Turkish government has drawn a long strategic
road map in the risk perception and the disaster mitigation strategy for almost
all the community services and the infrastructure. The development of
awareness against disasters has become part of formal education at all ages.
The National Disaster Management system was reorganized from scratch and the capabilities improved by providing additional financial and human
resources. All school and hospital buildings in İstanbul were assessed in terms
of seismic safety. Those found inadequate were demolished and then
reconstructed. In addition, a law on urban renewal of the seismic risk areas
was enacted in 2012 allowing the licensed engineering offices to assess the
seismic risk of residential buildings at the request of the house owners. If the
assessment report is approved by the local municipality, the building is set to
demolish within 60 days following the legal notice to the property owners.
Disagreeing owners have the right to get the assessment re-evaluated by the
independent peer reviewers. In the case of demolition, the house owners are
eligible to receive 12 months of rental support from the government. During
the time period 2012 to 2019, more than 120 000 buildings were assessed and
74% of them were demolished, the majority of the latter were in İstanbul area
where a major earthquake is expected within the following decades. This
chapter is intended to explain one of the most comprehensive and challenging
disaster mitigation strategies being applied in Turkey based on experience
since the 1999 earthquakes.
Description:
Published
Description:
19-42
Description:
6T. Studi di pericolosità sismica e da maremoto
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
book chapter
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