 |
Study estimates loss of half of İstanbul’s at-risk building in major quake
The study aimed to find those buildings expected to collapse or sustain severe damage as a result of a major quake, study coordinator Haluk Sucuoğlu from ODTÜ told the Anatolia news agency. The potential side effects of earthquakes, including landslides and tsunamis, were not taken into account in measuring potential damage.
Two scenarios were constructed by the study. In the worst-case scenario, the districts would be hit by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake after a total rupture of the Northern Anatolian Fault Line, which has not ruptured since 1766. Nearly half of the concrete buildings examined, 43,270, are expected to collapse or be severely damaged, while about 1,500 out of about 24,000 unreinforced masonry buildings are expected to collapse or be severely damaged.
In the other scenario, which envisages a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, partially rupturing the Northern Anatolian Fault Line, a total of 24,190 concrete buildings are estimated to collapse or be severely damaged.
“These figures are much higher than the figures which have been put forward as a result of studies that were carried out without fieldwork. If the range of building quality were normal, say, when you examine 100 buildings, 50 of them would be slightly damaged, 40 moderately damaged and 10 severely damaged. The figures of severely damaged buildings are the highest; moderately and slightly damaged ones are less than severely damaged ones,” Sucuoğlu said.
‘Surface discussion is an urban legend’
Asserting that the discussion of the earth surface’s being firm or weak amounts to only an urban legend, the professor said almost all earthquake-threatened buildings are on solid ground in earthquake terms. “The weak surfaces in terms of earthquake are in riverbeds and narrow strips of land near coasts, where we don’t have many buildings.”
He also stressed that the common feature of the at-risk buildings is their weak structure and called for those buildings to be either strengthened or reconstructed. A regulation must be implemented by the relevant institutions forcing residents of at-risk buildings take action and reinforce their property, he said.
Sucuoğlu also noted that the residents of the districts examined in the study can read the file on their own buildings at their municipalities.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BÜLENT KENEŞ |  |
||
| If the judiciary can't call MİT to account for its deeds, then Parliament should | |||
| EKREM DUMANLI |  |
||
| Beware! | |||
| GÖKHAN BACIK |  |
||
| Partition of Syria among the Great Powers: The solution? | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| MİT | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| Every child matters | |||
| BERK ÇEKTİR |  |
||
| New veterinary hospital regulations (1) | |||
| ŞAHİN ALPAY |  |
||
| Systemic gaps in government authority in Turkey | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| MİT crisis and old state | |||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Gas is cut while Europe freezes | |||
| ÖMER TAŞPINAR |  |
||
| Time for Turkey to match words with deeds | |||
| FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK |  |
||
| Unusual days for Turkey | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| Eclipse of the minds | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The Kurdish issue has divided the state | |||
| CUMALİ ÖNAL |  |
||
| US, Israel will not attack Iran | |||
| DOĞU ERGİL |  |
||
| ‘Religious youth’ | |||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
