Earthquakes are one of the oldest enemies of human being. From time to time in history, many civilizations were brought down his vast energy. In the twentieth century, mankind have come to know that earthquakes are not random, but natural forces driven by the evolutionary processes of the earth. Earthquakes can now be mapped, measured and analyzed.
Geographic Information System (GIS) offers great opportunity to national, regional and local emergency organizations to make planning and management of preparedness, mitigation and other measures which reduce losses of earthquake (Nuraliyev, 1 999). Since all problems with planning and management are related to location, they are geographically referenced and require spatial analysis and presentation, a GIS platform is a very helpful tool for planning and decision making in emergency management. Urban information systems, which is a field of GIS, used by the urban authorities, link the urban fragments and spaces with the features of the city and the citizens.
In this chapter, the main concepts, their components and the processes are described. The concepts of urban information system and earthquake management are examined seperately. The cities, where the urban information technologies are completely used and the cities which are ready for any earthquake, are explained for giving the best practices and taking some good results for the next initiatives for the use of these new technologies for the earthquake protection and recovery. The purpose of this chapter, is to extract information and systems from the positive examples for the proposals of this thesis.
2.1 Urban Information Systems
2.1.1 The Components of Urban Information Systems
Urban information systems combine map images with other kinds of information (like tabular data) for the purpose of analyzing spatial relationships among data related to locations in the city (Huxhold, 1 99 ).
An urban information system is the combination of talented persons (Geographic Information System team), spatial and descriptive data, analytic methods and computer software and hardware- all organized to automate, manage and deliver information through geographic presentation (Zeiler, 1 999).
Urban information systems include physical, technical, social, economic and administrative data, base maps, land use maps, master and development plans, the land information and cadastral maps. The system can make queries from legal documents, reports about the spaces, the citizens and result thematic maps like building, population and infrastructure maps. The building maps show building occupancy, construction type or date, number of floors, license information, users information and so on. The system may contain transportation maps, traffic-density maps, shortest path for the firefighters or ambulance drivers. According to the population, the decisions can be made about the locations of the social facilities like schools, health centers or green areas, utility service areas, telecommunication, gas, electricity (Reis,1 996). The analyses can be made about the topography, 3D surfaces, network analysis, service area analysis etc. This system can be applied in different administrative districts like a neighborhood or a city, or a county in federal governments.
All these systems are built for recognizing, understanding, planning, directing, monitoring and controlling the city for an effective and efficient urban management.
2.1.2 The Advantages of Urban Information Systems
Urban information systems make things easier and can be used in many fields that study with maps in urban scale.
Urban information systems bring automation. Graphical data can be visualized with rich display tools, can be connected, related with non-graphical data, queried and measured. Thematic maps can be analyzed, synthesized and alternatives can be produced. The database of the system builds spatial and topological relationships. Classifications can be done easily. Real-time updating is very easy, the integration with the other technologies like global positioning systems, remote sensing or internet is strong. Some charts, tables, statistics, graphics and ready reports can be taken from the system (Kim and Levine, 1 996).
Urban information system is a decision-support system which improves the accuracy and quality of the studies with computers and saves time. The system prevents duplication, loss of effort, and makes comparisons easily.
Urban planning and geography is the science of urban information system. They provide framework for studying complex systems. Urban information system is an instrument for implementing geographical thinking. It shows context and content, patterns, linkages and trends. The organizational consequences of urban information system are data sharing, work flow and co-ordination, teaming and communication (ESRI GIS Day, 2000).
2.1.3. Urban Information Systems In Turkey and In Other Countries
Beginning in the late 1 950s in the world, planners started to develop and use computerized models, planning information systems and decision-support systems to improve performance (Nedovic-Budic, 2000). They have found tools to enhance their analytical, geospatial technologies that differ from one country to another. The industrialized information societies are well adapted to this technology. They use it in many fields, the governments apply urban information systems in all aspects of the planning process, including data collection, storage, data analysis and presentation, planning and policy making, communication with the public, policy implementation and administration.The United States is the pioneer in this field, they began working with urban information systems in 1 970s. Canada and Australia have developed systems, also European countries like France, Germany and Holland have been successful in applying these technologies. Turkey is a latecomer in this field because of financial problems, the other priorities, the lack of technical expertise and different mentalities of the administrators. But today, urban information system is a popular magic word in the local governments. First initiative local governments like Bursa and Aydin cities began to use urban information systems in the mid-1 990s, then other three metropolitan municipalities, I stanbul, Ankara and I zmir made studies about digitising the maps, plans and creating inventories about their cities. In this section, first, Turkey examples and their studies about urban information systems are explained, then the other world examples are described for their different uses and applications.
2.1.3.1. Urban Information Systems in Turkey
The Municipality of Greater Bursa built urban information systems in 1 996 as one of the beginners, aiming to give better service to their citizens (Bursa Büyük ehir Belediyesi,
http://www.bursa-bld.gov.tr, visited on 27..2000). The goals of the system are; revitalization of infrastructure planning, prevention of illegal building construction, better management of urban traffic, easy and practical use of deed and cadastre information, increase the revenues of the government with property and garbage taxes, monitoring the city development and construction information and situation. The demographic analysis and population forecast techniques are tried and charts are prepared on the maps by the help of GIS.
Today, The Municipality of Greater Bursa with its three district municipalities, finished to create urban inventory. The database of the system includes the address information about the building and the household. In the building database, there are fields of street name, building type, number of floors, number of flats, heating type. In the household database, the data contains number of household, renter/owner, name, surname, occupancy type, outerdoor number and electricity, water numbers. There is detailed information about deed records. Another database is built for the development plans. The different attributes of blocks can be found in the databases of the plans. Major investments caused a very rapid growth in the city and the urban authorities would like to catch the current geographic information technologies in the twenty first century.