3rd Roundtable Meeting on Disaster Management
19 November 2014; JCSE HQ Auditorium

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGAINST THE
NATURAL DISASTERS OF TURKEY:MITIGATION, RESPONSE AND RECOVERY ISSUES
Beyza TASKIN (PhD)
Associate Professor of Civil Engineering
Istanbul Technical University
Secretary General,JSCE Turkey Section

TURKEY and NATURAL DISASTERS→ Geographically, Turkey has 7 regions. This is due to climate, topography andneighborhood; however not to official governmental administration.
→ We have 81 provinces, each having independent governorships and metropolitan
municipalities. Each province has various numbers of districts with smaller
municipalities and governorship offices.
→ Please NOTE THAT: Mayors are elected by central voting of the public, while
governors are appointed by the republic !

TURKEY and NATURAL DISASTERS
EQs, floods, hurricane

North shores suffers serious floods andlandslides; south suffer NAF !
HIGHLANDS:
EQs; landslide;snowslideEQs;
hurricaneand floods
EQs; Draught
EQs; flood; hurricane andsomehow tornados

Landslide & Draught slightly.
THAT’S WHY OUR NATION’SCAPITAL ANKARA IS SETTLED IN

Turkey is very vulnerable to Natural Disasters….
There had been many developments in emergency and disaster prevention andmitigation policies in the last decades.
Some of them are very successful; however some still needs to be reconsidered.

TURKEY and MAJOR NATURAL DISASTER RISKS: Earthquakes
North Anatolian Fault

Aegean HorstGraben System

Since 1900:
M  6.0  110 eventsM  7.0  19 events
December 26, 1939 M7.9
Great Erzincan Earthquake
East Anatolian Fault
Seismic Zonation Map of Turkey, 1996

Annual rate of 5.0M<6.0 events between 06.201305.2014 = 197
5.0  M < 6.0 → 14 eventsM  6.0→ 5 events

TURKEY and MAJOR NATURAL DISASTER RISKS: Earthquakes
Most recent destructive earthquake:Mw7.2 / 23.10.2011 Van EQ

HARD & SOFT APPROACHES AGAINST  earthquakes
 Earthquake Codes are updated in 1975; 1998; 2007 and a new version is on the way.
 In 2000 Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP) is established and Earthquake
Insurance became compulsory for private properties by law.

 Urban Renewal Law is enforced in 2012 as another soft approach, which governs thehard approach of demolishing seismically risky buildings and renewing them.

 Most of the school buildings, hospitals, bridges and viaducts are retrofitted.
 Emergency management regulations are handled excluding bureaucracy by recently
established Presidency of Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD), which is
directly under Turkish Prime Ministry.

 Earthquake drills are initiated in schools; research projects are encouraged via publicfunds; emergency sheltering and gathering locations are pointed out; emergency
transportation routes are established; many NGO’s are founded for emergency
response, search and rescue, public training; research & application of early warning
system still is a topic that AFAD is working on.
 Unfortunately, some of the sheltering locations in İstanbul are re-permitted forconstruction and emergency routes of land transportation are left uncontrolled bypublic authorities.

TURKEY and MAJOR NATURAL DISASTER RISKS: Landslides

Between 1970-2012:

988 Landslides
58 casualties
3828 effected people

Annual rate distribution for landslide events mostly due to heavy rainfall:
> 200 events in 5 provinces;
100200 events in 28 provinces
Making almost 41% of total provinces in Turkey, however 70% of the total
land area.

TURKEY and MAJOR NATURAL DISASTER RISKS: Landslides
Most recent landslide:13.05.2011 Giresun

HARD & SOFT APPROACHES AGAINST  landslides
 Transportation facilities and highways are rehabilitated including some route changes;
 Slope stability-improvement constructions such as: retaining walls, draining, trenches
and planting are realized.

TURKEY and MAJOR NATURAL DISASTER RISKS: Floods
Between 1970-2012:

237 Floods
180 casualties
5293 effected people
July 13, 1995 Senirkent-ISPARTA

Annual rate distribution for flood events:
> 100 events in 4 provinces;
10100 events in 26 provinces
Making 37% of total provinces and 41% of the total land area of Turkey.

TURKEY and MAJOR NATURAL DISASTER RISKS: Floods
Most recent flood:

27.08.2010 Rize

HARD & SOFT APPROACHES AGAINST  floods
 Along the rivers, where the flow rate is significantly high or have the potential offlooding, dykes are constructed.

 Settlement and construction on alluvial plains and stream beds are prohibited.
 Early warning system is realized.
 Rehabilitation of most of the stream beds by levees; bridges; draining structures;
terracing and planting is carried out.

TURKEY and MAJOR NATURAL DISASTER RISKS: Snowslides
Between 1890-2009:1227 Snowslides
1417 casualties
Feb. 1, 1992 Görmeç-ŞIRNAK151 casualties

Annual rate distribution for snowslide events:
> 20 events in 3 provinces;
1120 events in 8 provinces

TURKEY and MAJOR NATURAL DISASTER RISKS: Snowslides
Most recent snowslide:29.01.2012 Bitlis

HARD & SOFT APPROACHES AGAINST  snowslides
 Flow-line controlling constructions and snow fencing applications are realized nearurban settlement locations.

A NEW DISASTER TYPE for TURKEY  TORNADO 
Due to the global climate changes,Turkish people now get used totornado events. Major events havebeen seen in the Mediterranean
shores and Marmara Sea, while afew events occurred in the Aegean
coasts.

EFFORTS for DISASTER RISK PREVENTION As a nationwide effort, establishment of Disaster and Emergency Management
Presidency (AFAD) is an important change in Turkey, which decreased a significant
amount of bureaucracy. Furthermore, AFAD handles all four stages of emergency
management: Preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation.

EFFORTS for DISASTER RISK PREVENTION
 Although disaster victims still hold the right to benefit from publicfunding for their damaged properties, Turkish Catastrophe
Insurance Pool founded in 2000 provides the contribution of entire
property owners to share the economic burden.

 The latest Construction Inspection Law increased the quality ofstructures.

 By the recently enforced Urban Renewal Law, owners whose
properties are seismically insufficient can replace their buildings
with exemptions of many taxes and disbursements.

EFFORTS for DISASTER RISK PREVENTION
 Emergency training, drills and education initiated in the last two decades yielded anincrease in the awareness of the society.

 Including higher education, retrofitting and strengthening techniques are considered,experimentally researched and taught. Real world applications are commonly seen,especially for public buildings, schools, hospitals and transportation facilities.

EFFORTS for DISASTER RISK PREVENTION
 International workshops and framework project partnerships became very common.

 In the international level, current disaster and emergency management system andinsurance pool applications in Turkey became a model for surrounding countries suchas Iran, Iraq, Syria, Cyprus, Romania, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia,Kosova.
 Collaboration with JICA for the last 40 years and FEMA for the last 15 years provided
initiation of graduate level education programs, international exchange of experts
and establishment of institutes on emergency management.

 Being trained by JICA, Turkey became a trainer for the Third Countries within the lastdecade.

as JSCE-Turkey Section
we would like to

THANK YOU VERY MUCH !