Development of Disaster Management in Turkey: from 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake to 2011 Van Earthquake

Year 2017, Volume: 1 Issue: 4, 145 - 151, 31.12.2017

Kağan Cenk Mızrak , Mert Tolon

Abstract

The natural
disasters that have occurred in Turkey are categorized as % 61 earthquakes,
followed by landslides, floods, rock falls, fires and storms. Between the years
of 1903 and 2000, there have been nearly 150 earthquakes in Turkey which led to
damage and this is a challenge for Turkey. The management and plans of these
natural disasters in Turkey were first developed in 1959. In 1999, with the
magnitude of 7.4, The Kocaeli and Duzce earthquakes affected a region of Turkey
that constitutes % 23 of the country’s population. After that, in 2000 necessary
laws have been prepared and enacted. On 23 October 2011, an earthquake shook
eastern Turkey (Van Province) with a magnitude of 7.2 and same results have
been seen for this disaster too. After this, the existing laws regarding
disaster management and hierarchy of delegation of authority were updated. This
paper examines organizational coordination in the response phase of both
earthquakes. A literature research on case study earthquakes were done in the
meaning of disaster management perspective and after that a comparison was done
to discover technological or systematic usage necessities in disaster
management phases. This comparison allows providing some insight about the
results of changes in the organizational structure of Turkish disaster
management system for providing a new technology or system for coordination.
This study also provides original research evidences for scientists to motivate
them focusing on lessons learned case studies to improve the current system and
to show each small effort can come through with a better disaster response
ability for Turkey.

Keywords

1999 Kocaeli Earthquake, 2011 Van Earthquake, Disaster Management

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