Urban Information Systems for Earthquake-Resistant Cities: A case study on Pend k, Istanbul
Özge Yalçiner
Introduction
The ability to access information at any place and at any time is what dynamism is
all about. The dynamic information is closely linked to planning. Information is
needed to assist decision making in planning and the monitoring of the city may
result in new planning actions, under normal circumstances. Furthermore, in
extraordinary circumstances, in emergencies, information flow and exchange is very
important when making emergency action plans. Valuable information gathered
during the hours, days, months and the years following a disaster can lead to policies
and practices that reduce risks. This information can be used to enhance the
effectiveness of planning, awareness, preparedness and recovery.
Earthquakes can affect any area within a broad zone and may pose great risk to
human life and infrastructure, depending on settlement distribution and densities,
building materials and engineering standards, etc. Policies and decisions must be
designed in order to act effectively against earthquakes, to manage rescue and
response operations, to organize and deliver relief. In this case, authorities can
benefit from advances in geographic information technologies (e.g. data collection
and integration, access and interoperability). They must develop predictive and
operational models, systems that are embedded with Geographic Information
Systems (GIS). If it was known, the risk, damage and loss could be reduced, the
recovery period could be shortened. This thesis aims to define and find an
interrelation between urban information system and earthquake management
concepts, to build a body of knowledge and awareness about how to tackle the
earthquake disaster, to create an urban inventory for pre- and post-disaster planning and to propose an emergency administration system. A case study area is selected to
find out the contribution of the use of GIS-based techniques in these subjects, in
earthquake-prone Pendik, an administrative district of İ stanbul.