## 5 Debris Management and Related Hazards in the Earthquake-Affected Provines in Turkey
### Debris Management and Related Hazards in the Earthquake-Affected Provinces in Turkey
#### 5.2.6 Kahramanmaras Disposal Site  
Kahramanmaras is the second most earthquake-affected province in East Anatolia after Hatay [15; 46]. The city is located close to the epicentral area of both earthquakes so the impact of both earthquakes on the building stock was devastating.  
Inspections of buildings conducted by the competent authorities in the Kahramanmaras province found 99,326 buildings collapsed or suffered very heavy structural damage [15], the highest percentage of which occurred in Kahramanmaras city. This reveals that the need for debris removal from the city was imperative from the very first days of the emergency response. The site that was selected for debris disposal in the wider Kahramanmaras area is located approximately 5 km from the southeastern edge of the city (Figure 14).  
However, there are areas at shorter distances where a large part of the population is active, such as the industrial zone, the suburbs of the city, and the university campus (Figure 14), just as we have seen in the previous case of the Adiyaman city. At a distance of about 1 km to the northeast a densely populated suburb is developed with a perimeter of about 5 km and an area of 1.15 km\({}^{2}\) (Figure 14). Even closer, at a distance of less than 300 m to the southwest is the Karakasu settlement with a number of old houses and new high-rise mainly residential buildings (Figure 14). Less than 1 km to the east, a camp with almost 800 (763 in early May 2023) containers for the temporary accommodation of the earthquake-affected people had been set up (Figure 14). If we consider the minimum number of people accommodated in each such structure to be 4, we can understand that more than 3000 people are accommodated in this camp located very close to the debris disposal site. Similarly, the university campus, which also hosts a lot of people, is located at a distance of about 1 km from the disposal site.  
During our field survey in early April to this area we found that the site was receiving a large number of trucks depositing debris, and the number of heavy machinery processing the debris at the site was also large (Figure 15). The dumping of debris was occurring at such a rate that the wetting of the debris with water during treatment was not adequate (Figure 15). As a result of these deficiencies in the implementation of preventive measures, dust clouds were created, which not only remained over the site for a long period of time but also spread to surrounding residential areas (Figure 15) including all the above-mentioned facilities for managing the effects of the earthquake disaster.  
This site, which is one of the largest that have been established in the area, may have an impact on the health of residents, especially of the earthquake-affected people accommodated in the adjacent camp, and the balance of the natural environment. Many of these adverse effects have already been mentioned and analyzed in detail in the previous sections.  
Figure 14: Pseudocolor image maps in the Kahramanmaras area before (**left** column, acquisition on 2 February 2023) and after (**right** column, acquisition on 11 June 2023) the 6 February 2023 earthquakes. The maps in the third row present the container camp set up at a small distance from the eastern part of the site. The capacity of the camp is approximately 3000 people.  
Figure 15: Characteristic views of the Kahramanmaras disposal site. The formation of dust clouds has the potential to affect not only the workers and volunteers on the site, but also people living in nearby container camps (**a,b**) for the accommodation of the earthquake-affected and homeless people among other residential areas around the site.