Speaker
Description
On February 6, 2023, Turkey experienced two major earthquakes, the first of 7.7 Mw and the second of 7.6 Mw, 8 hours apart. The epicenter of the earthquakes was Kahramanmaraş province. Along with this province, 10 other provinces were affected by these earthquakes, more than 50 thousand people lost their lives and approximately 40 thousand buildings collapsed.
Such a major disaster reveals the importance of studies on earthquakes and earthquake damage. Earthquakes and earthquake damage have been the subject of investigation by many fields of science. There are different studies such as examining ground characteristics, examining earthquake damage at the building scale, determining earthquake damage by remote sensing, and examining earthquake damage in terms of built environment and natural environment components.
However, within the framework of such a major natural disaster characterized as “the disaster of the century”, it is seen that studies on the damage caused by the earthquake in terms of different land covers such as built environment, forest area, agricultural area in the whole of the earthquake impact area are limited in the literature. In this respect, this study aims to analyze the damage caused by the Kahramanmaraş earthquake in terms of different land covers.
The question of the study is “does earthquake damage differ in different land cover types?”.
Two data sets were used in the study. The first data set is land cover. Land cover data for the year 2022 was taken from Esri Living Atlas application. This data created by the remote sensing method consists of water, forest, flooded vegetation, crops, built area, bare ground, snow/ice, and rangeland land covers.
The second data set is the regional damage proxy map. It was produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This map detects the change in the surface by comparing the satellite images before and after the earthquake and shows these areas as damaged areas. Damage proxy map is used in many studies for rapid damage assessment after disasters. The scope of the study was determined within the boundaries of the damage proxy map. This area is approximately 58 km².
These two data were superposed in geographic information system and earthquake damage rate was calculated for different land cover types.
According to the findings of the study, the damage rate is 3% in forest areas, 5% in agricultural areas and 14% in the built environment. In addition, the damage rate is 34% in bare ground, where there is no vegetation, and 29% in rangeland. It is thought that the higher damage rate in the built environment compared to agricultural and forest areas is due to human intervention and settlements that are not earthquake-resistant. The high damage rate in the bare ground and rangeland is also related to landslides and erosion as secondary disasters after the earthquakes.
In addition to the fact that earthquake damage is largely evaluated through the built environment and policies are developed accordingly, this study reveals that earthquake damage is also important outside the built area. Although it is important that the study addresses earthquake damage in a broad framework, it needs to be supported by lower-scale studies in land cover detail.
| Keywords | Earthquake; Damage Proxy map; Land cover; Disaster-resilient; Kahramanmaraş. |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
