Preliminary Earthquake Risk Management Strategy Plan of Eskisehir, Turkey by using GIS

SUMMARY Earthquake risk is defined as the product of hazard and vulnerability studies. The main aims of earthquake risk management are to make plans and apply those for reducing human losses and protect properties from earthquake hazards. Eskisehir, which is one the biggest urban area, is located in the northwest part of middle Anatolia. The population of the urban area is above half million and it is under the affect of North Anatolian Active Fault. In 1956, an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 took place close to urban area (approximately 15 kms) and caused deaths, injuries and produced serious damage to several structures. Natural risk managers are studying to identify and manage the risk from an earthquake for these highly populated urban areas. They want to put some strategic plans for this purpose. Risk managers need some input about these kinds of studies. Some input for preparation of earthquake risk management strategy plans were tried to find in this study. Tectonic settings, seismicity of the area were studied and magnitudes of historical earthquakes were used to predict the probability of occurrence of major earthquakes. After obtaining the critical earthquake magnitude, the study concentrated on the field data for providing soil dynamic properties. Number of measures are employed to characterise the earthquake’s affects in the soil of studied area. Maximum horizontal peak ground acceleration was provided for the area. It is seen that soil property change from place to place. The soil classification map, which indicates soil properties, was prepared. In addition to these outputs, which can be used as an input for strategy plans, some critical properties and lifelines like natural gas lines, interchanges and schools have been indicated on the map. Geographic Information System (GIS) was used for the realisation of damage and loss estimation analyse in this part of the study. The earthquake risk manager can use these outcomes and plans as input for their own studies.