Earthquake disaster risk assessment and evaluation for Turkey

• Published in: Environmental Geology 2009-03, Vol.57 (2), p.307-320
• Main Author: Korkmaz, Kasım Armağan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Earthquakes, seismology; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Engineering geology; Exact sciences and technology; Geology; Internal geophysics; Original Article
• ISSN: 0943-0105; 1432-0495; 1866-6299
• DOI: 10.1007/s00254-008-1439-1

Turkey is the one country in which 90% of the buildings are subject to the risk of earthquake disaster. Recent earthquakes revealed that Turkey's present residential reinforced-concrete constructions are insufficient in earthquake resistance. Many of the buildings which collapsed or were severely damaged have been rehabilitated by applying simple methods, whose adequacy is questionable. As in Japan and the United States, Turkey's earthquake assessment studies have increased, especially after earthquakes in 1999, In US, several methodologies and standards, such as Hazard-US (HAZUS) and Applied Technology Council (ATC) 13-20-21 and 156, provide comprehensive earthquake loss estimation methodology for post-earthquake assessment. This paper provides post-earthquake assessment and disaster management for Turkey. The main aim of the post-earthquake assessment discussed is to evaluate loss and estimate damage through disaster management approach. Classification criteria for damage are essential to determine the situation after an earthquake in both the short and long terms. The methodology includes probabilistic-based analysis, which considers the magnitude of Ms >= 5.0 earthquakes between 1900 and 2005, for determining the probabilistic seismic hazard for Turkey.