Date

2010

Author

Hasdemir, Berna

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Earthquakes in Turkey, among all natural disasters claim the highest losses in terms of human lives, material and economic assets. Most of the lives are lost within the collapsed buildings, and most of the material and economic losses are again directly related to the functional capacities of the building stock. The method of risk assessment in the existing building stock is therefore an essential step in the maintenance of safer urban environments. Analysis of risks in the building stock is usually claimed to demand surveys of engineering studies. Yet risk determination studies by planners could prove not only a more comprehensive approach, but less time consuming and cheaper. As carried out by engineers, most of safety studies in the building stock are directly related with estimating the probability of collapse and damage in individual buildings. It is necessary to recognize the need for analysis of the building stock not only in terms of structural robustness, but as part of a mitigation plan, taking into consideration all sources of hazards and the urban pattern, densities, landuse, forms of ownership, social features, management capacities, and local opportunities. Risky buildings determined by a simple set of criteria within a comprehensive planning context are comparatively explored in this study to observe the level of fit with those determined by engineering surveys. The case of Fatih District in Istanbul provides an opportunity to carry out comparative analyses. It indicates that a ‘perfect fit’ can not be achieved if for nothing but due to the disregard of multi-hazard areas, hazardous activities and other vulnerabilities like timber buildings other than reinforced concrete in the district by the engineering survey. Several trials indicated that there is a trade-off between ratio of fit and the total volume of relative vulnerability assumed. Ratios like 70% or more could make the planning approach a preferable method owing to its nature of least time-consuming and costly alternative in the determination of what constitutes risk in any urban area. Ultimate assessment could be made with the occurance of the earthquake itself.

Subject Keywords

City planning.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12611563/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/19362

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis