1:45 PM - 3:15 PM
[HDS08-P05] Overview for the establishment of a comprehensive decision-support system: MARTEST Project after February 06, 2023, Kahramanmaras Earthquakes
Keywords:disaster resilient, tsunami, February 06, 2023 Kahramanmaras Earthquake, Marmara Sea, earthquake
Turkiye is a highly seismic region especially along North Anatolian Fault (NAF) and East Anatolian Fault (EAF) zones having destructive large earthquakes. In addition to the earthquake effect, Turkiye has been exposed to large and destructive tsunamis many times throughout history and has suffered tsunami damage along its 8333-km long coastline. Due to the rapid and widespread development of urbanization and industrial activities, it has become inevitable to be prepared against earthquake and tsunami disasters and quickly implement hazard mitigation strategies. On February 6, 2023, two destructive earthquakes of strike-slip faulting occurred 9 hours apart at southeastern Turkiye, Kahramanmaras province near Syria border, with the magnitudes of Mw7.7 and M7.6 hitting 10 provinces with totally more than 13 million population. Unfortunately, as of the submission date, the death toll and injuries have been reported more than 35,000 and 105,000, respectively, as well as social depression and huge economic burden. The first Mw7.7 earthquake occurred almost 90km inland; however, small tsunami was recorded at four tide gauge stations, as Iskenderun, Erdemli, Gazimagusa and Girne in the northeastern Levantine Sea. The devastating damage of two earthquakes strongly reveal the importance and need of developing disaster resilient societies with high-technology multi-disciplinary research all over the country and the neighborhood. SATREPS project titled “MARTEST – Establishment of a Research and Education Complex for Developing Disaster-Resilient Societies” will be conducted between Japan and Turkiye with the cooperation of JST and JICA starting from April 1, 2023, for 5 years exactly aiming to satisfy this strong need. In parallel with this, Marmara Disaster Resistant Structures Research and Training Center was established on 21 December 2022 as the implementer of the MARTEST Project. Establishment of an inclusive and evidence-based decision support platform for disaster risk reduction is one of the project outputs, mainly including hazard assessment, damage assessment and urban planning at the coastal areas of Marmara Sea. Decision-making process covers both deterministic and probabilistic approach in hazard assessment while damage assessment includes tsunami inundation and evacuation simulations. The evidence of paleotsunami studies, historical records and the numerical modeling results reveal that the coasts of Marmara Sea have been severely struck by hazardous tsunamis in the past. Therefore, the organization of tsunami source database and inundation database is crucial that include both crustal deformation and submarine landslides. Tsunami evacuation simulations are also essential, which will contribute to the development of disaster-resilient urban areas using decision-support open platform, verifying the building and human damage. This study presents an overview of tsunami risk in the Marmara Sea and the importance of developing a decision support platform for disaster-resilient communities and urban areas following the devastating and shocking impact of the Kahramanmaras earthquakes.