Can Zulfikar

Rapid Earthquake Loss Assessment After Damaging Earthquakes

This article summarizes the work done over last decades regarding the development of new approaches and setting up of new applications for earthquake rapid response systems that function to estimate earthquake losses in quasi real time after an earthquake. After a critical discussion of relevant earthquake loss estimation methodologies, the essential features and the characteristics of the available loss estimation software are summarized. Currently operating near real time loss estimation tools can be classified under two main categories depending on the size of area they cover: Global and Local Systems. For the global or regional near real time loss estimation systems: GDACS, WAPMERR, PAGER, ELER and SELENA methodologies are. Examples are provided for the local rapid earthquake loss estimation systems including: Taiwan Earthquake Rapid Reporting System, Real-time Earthquake Assessment Disaster System in Yokohama, Real Time Earthquake Disaster Mitigation System of the Tokyo Gas Co., IGDAS Earthquake Protection System and Istanbul Earthquake Rapid Response System.

State-of-the art and future of earthquake early warning in the European region

European researchers and seismic networks are active in developing new approaches to earthquake early warning (EEW), implementing and operating test EEW systems, and in some cases, offering operational EEW to end users. We present the key recent developments in EEW research in Europe, describe the networks and regions where EEW is currently in testing or development, and highlight the two systems in Turkey and Romania that currently provide operational systems to a limited set of end users.

Development of Earthquake Lossmap for Europe

For almost real-time estimation of the losses after a major earthquake in the Euro-Mediterranean region, the Joint Research Area-3 (JRA-3) component of the European Union (EU) Project “Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology – NERIES” foresees (at several levels of sophistication): 1. Finding the most likely location of the source of the earthquake using regional seismotectonic data base; 2. estimation of the spatial distribution of selected site-specific ground motion parameters; 3. correlation/verifyication/enrichment of the estimated ground shaking information with the available on-line strong motion data; and 4. estimation of physical damage and casualty distributions. These LossMaps will provide the required vital information within minutes after an earthquake to European emergency response agencies, in a manner similar to the United States Geological Survey (USGS)s Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system. A methodology that incorporates the regional dependencies and sources of uncertainty stemming from ground motion predictions, fault finiteness, site modifications, inventory of elements subjected to the hazard, and the vulnerability relationships is under preparation with researchers from Imperial College, NORSAR and ETH-Zurich. A pilot application is established for Turkey that encompasses the gridded earthquake source, Quaternary, Tertiary, Mesozoic (QTM) geological classification and physical and demographic inventory mapping for the whole country. Within the scope of this study, loss estimations were computed for the 1999 Kocaeli earthquake using several approaches and comparisons made with observed values. The LossMap tool will be available for the first estimation of damage immediately after an earthquake in Turkey by the end of 2007 and for the whole Euro-Med region by the end of 2009.

PARAMETRIC EVALUATION OF SEISMIC RETROFITTING TECHNIQUES APPLIED TO THE PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS IN ISTANBUL

Seismic performance evaluation and retrofitting / strengthening of 142 public school buildings in Istanbul have been implemented within the World Bank funded Istanbul Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness (ISMEP) Project. The most common retrofitting techniques applied to the school buildings following their seismic performance assessments in accordance with the national (Turkish Earthquake Resistant Design and Retrofitting Code-2007, [3]) and the international standards (FEMA273, FEMA356, ASCE41-06) are the reinforced concrete jacketing of the existing columns and shear walls and, the construction of new shear walls. In this study, a parametric evaluation of the retrofitting techniques applied to the school buildings is carried out. The amounts of RC jacketing (i.e. concrete and steel quantities) and the number of the newly added shear walls are statistically evaluated and the changes in the stiffness, fundamental period and the mass of the buildings as well as the resulting base shears are compared with the existing cases.