Proposal of a national mitigation strategy against earthquakes in Turkey

P. Gundes Bakir*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

While laboratory and analytical studies can provide valuable information about earthquake hazard mitigation, the most effective educator is the impact of a full-scale earthquake on a full-scale city. The recent earthquakes in Turkey showed that the governmental as well as individual attitudes towards earthquakes did not represent proportionate responses to the risk levels concerned. Turkey had weaknesses in preparing, planning, mitigating and responding to disasters in spite of the known seismic vulnerability of the country. Many steps have been taken after 1999 earthquakes in Turkey, however, the preparations largely concentrate on the response and recovery phases and a fundamental step to reform the current disaster management system and steps to rehabilitate the vulnerable building stock has not been undertaken until today. This would involve changing the present laws and regulations and de-centralising the disaster management system. The aim of this paper is to propose a national mitigation strategy for Turkey for a time-frame of 10 years. The model proposed is a very comprehensive model for earthquake risk reduction in Turkey and within this context, the legislative and technical aspects of mitigation will be discussed in detail. Strategies for mitigating and retrofitting the existing building stock will also be proposed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)405-425
Number of pages21
JournalNatural Hazards
Volume33
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2004

Keywords

  • Buildings
  • Catastrophe risk management
  • Densely populated urban areas
  • Developing countries
  • Earthquakes
  • Mitigation
  • Natural hazards
  • Regulatory issues
  • Seismic rehabilitation
  • Structural damage
  • Turkey

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Proposal of a national mitigation strategy against earthquakes in Turkey'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this