Enhancing seismic preparedness in Istanbul

97327 WWW.GFDRR.ORG Stories of Impact A series highlighting achievements in disaster risk management initiatives Enhancing Seismic Preparedness in Istanbul REGION: EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA RESULTS & ACHIEVEMENTS COUNTRY: TURKEY FOCUS AREA: DISASTER RISK REDUCTION • 1,086 public buildings have been retrofitted or reconstructed, including Located on the vulnerable North Anatolian schools that serve more than 1.1 million students and teachers, and hospitals Fault, Istanbul is highly prone to earthquakes. and clinics that serve about 8.7 million The city’s high population and commercial patients annually. and industrial density mean that frequent • 662,000 people were trained in earthquakes can cause significant economic disaster preparedness and an losses, damage, and human suffering. estimated 5.5 million citizens reached via social and public media through the To protect the city from this risk, in 2005, Public Awareness and Neighborhood Community Volunteers program. the Governorship of Istanbul, with support • In the course of the project, 3,630 civil from the World Bank and the Global Facility engineers throughout the country were for Disaster Reduction and Recovery trained in the seismic retrofitting code. (GFDRR), launched a comprehensive program • The back-up Disaster Management to help the city prepare for and respond to Center is operational and Istanbul earthquakes. Governorship’s new main Disaster Management Center at Hasdal has been completed. Context LESSONS LEARNED In 1999, the 7.1 magnitude Marmara earthquake shook northwest Setting up a strong, highly knowledgeable Turkey, killing more than 17,000 people and causing $5 billion local team is key to successful implementation. in damage. The earthquake significantly damaged Istanbul’s Projects have greater chances of success when infrastructure. A major economic center and home to 15 million they are implemented by local authorities, people, Istanbul is vulnerable to earthquakes that can have engineers, and managers with experience working devastating consequences on the economy as well as human on earthquake reconstruction projects, and who lives. have extensive knowledge about city and national regulations. The ISMEP program established a To reduce damage from disasters like Marmara, the Istanbul Project Coordination Unit as an independent team Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Project of experienced local experts to fulfill financial and (ISMEP) was conceived in 2005 to enhance preparedness, technical requirements for the project. strengthen critical infrastructure, and improve institutional and technical capacity for disaster risk management and emergency Increasing public awareness is critical to build public response. support for upgrading schools. While schools are being retrofitted, students will be required to tem- Approach porarily relocate to other schools, which is unpopu- GFDRR provided technical and advisory support to the $1.2 lar with some parents and students. To gain public billion ISMEP project, which includes $550 million in World support for the retrofitting of schools, seminars Bank financing. To reduce seismic risk, the project pioneered an and trainings were prepared for students, parents, innovative approach that combined: risk reduction investments teachers, and administrative staff to inform them such as the reconstruction of public buildings; broader programs of the benefits of the changes once schools are including public awareness campaigns; and investments that upgraded. strengthen disaster response. Project activities focused on: • Enhancing emergency preparedness including updating Next Steps emergency communication and information systems and Building on the lessons learned from ISMEP, the Government technology, a “Safe Life” public awareness campaign of Turkey plans to continue to expand the disaster risk communications strategy and workshops for individuals management agenda to other high-risk areas of the country. and corporations, as well as a state-of-the-art disaster In this context, the Government will develop a National Disaster management center that serves as a control center for Risk Management Program (NDRMP) which will serve as a emergency response. multi-stakeholder platform providing guidance to a wide range • Retrofitting or reconstruction of priority public buildings of institutions for preparing risk reduction projects. The program (schools, hospitals, dormitories, administrative and social will facilitate funding from a wide range of sources, including service buildings) to reduce seismic risk. the national budget, international financing institutions, and the • Supporting the enforcement of building codes to ensure that private sector. The lead agency for this program will be the they comply with seismic-resistant design standards. Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD). “The ISMEP project’s holistic approach addresses many aspects of disaster management, including softer elements such as public awareness. Through this project, we have made great progress in Istanbul that would have been otherwise difficult. — Gökay Atilla Bostan, Istanbul AFAD Director Contact Shaela Rahman I Senior Communications Officer, GFDRR srahman@worldbank.org I +1 202-458-0283 www.gfdrr.org *All figures in US Dollars The original had problem with text extraction. pdftotext Unable to extract text.