Workshop on disaster risk management held in Küçükçekmece

Küçükçekmece Mayor Kemal Çebi, who made the opening speech of the workshop, said, "Earthquakes are not only a matter of engineers and academics, but also of moral, conscientious politicians who are at peace with science."

The workshop, organized within the scope of the European Union's HORIZON Europe Program - PARATUS Project, was carried out in cooperation with Küçükçekmece Municipality Disaster Affairs Directorate, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Earthquake Risk Management and Urban Development Department and Istanbul Technical University. Mayor Kemal Çebi, deputy mayors, unit managers, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality personnel, Istanbul Technical University officials, muhtars, NGOs and search and rescue teams of district municipalities attended the program held at the Küçükçekmece Municipality Wedding Hall.

In the workshop, risks concerning Küçükçekmece and the Western Marmara corridor were addressed with scenario-based methods and realistic scenarios were created in light of disaster experiences from 1999 to the present.

Küçükçekmece Mayor Kemal Çebi, in his speech, mentioned the works they carried out as a municipality against earthquake risk and said, ''Since 2012, we have determined 8,559 buildings as risky in our district and demolished 7,718 of them. With the Rapid Scanning Project of our Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, 1,371 of our buildings were determined to be high risk. We have further institutionalized this process with our Disaster Affairs Directorate, which we established in 2023. We have also increased the number of our assembly areas from 61 to 209. We have provided basic disaster awareness training to over 200 thousand citizens.''

'I THINK EARTHQUAKE-RELATED STUDIES ARE NOT ENOUGH ACROSS THE COUNTRY'

Çebi, who said that they wanted to raise awareness with the workshop, said, ''Earthquakes are a very important reality for our country. I think that the studies on this issue are not sufficient throughout the country. The Istanbul earthquake is expected like waiting for a distant relative. We can be a country where life goes on when an earthquake occurs, like in Japan. But the way to do this is not only through prayers, but also through reason, science, planning and cooperation. We want to raise awareness with this workshop and spread this to all of Istanbul.''

'I THANK KÜÇÜKÇEKMECE MUNICIPALITY FOR THEIR SUPPORT'

The PARATUS project’s Turkey coordinator Prof. Dr. Seda Kundak said, “PARATUS is a 4-year research project. The project has a scientific component as well as a component for sharing and developing the information produced with the public. The PARATUS Project, which is being carried out with the participation of 19 institutions from 10 different countries, was established to develop a dynamic, systemic and multi-stakeholder risk assessment approach against the increasing chain effects of disasters. The project has four different application areas. One of these is Istanbul. We will have a much more detailed systemic risk map with the district workshops. I would like to thank Küçükçekmece Mayor Kemal Çebi and everyone else for hosting us and supporting us.”

UAV

Editor: News Center