The metropolitan municipality assembly of Izmir includes nine municipalities and deals with policies of transportation, city planning, land use and metropolitan planning, road construction, water distribution, and waste water collection. Throughout its history, the city has experienced several strong earthquakes, the latest in 1994. The ancient city, Smyrna was destroyed several times. On 10 July 1688, an earthquake killed 16,000 to 19,000 people. The earthquakes on 26 June 1880 and 31 March 1928 caused heavy damage in the city.
Turkey is a very centralized country.
The governor's office is responsible for disaster management. The regional directorates of the Ministry of Public Works and Settlement and the Civil Defense Board work under the authority of the governor. They are also the members of the Natural Disaster Coordination Committee for each city. The mayor of Izmir and the engineering department, fire department, potable water, sewage systems, and food stocks of the Metropolitan municipality are the participants of this committee. As was obvious during the recent management of the Izmir earthquake, coordination must be better organized for an efficient crisis management in the metropolitan area.