Center established to enhance quake preparedness

ISTANBUL

In line with the efforts to prepare the Marmara region against a massive earthquake scientists have long warned about, a center has been established to generate data and conduct detailed studies on the dangers and risks posed by active faults in the region.

At the Marmara Active Fault Danger and Risk Application and Research Center (MATAM), established at Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ), dynamic, digital and risk mapping techniques will be developed for the dangers and risks posed by active faults in Türkiye, especially in the Marmara Region.

The center will also prepare earthquake scenarios by creating building-based acceleration maps and generating data for urban transformation, industrial planning and disaster-prepared infrastructure.

"We are currently designing accelerometers that people can attach to the buildings they live in and we will be able to monitor the behavior of buildings in small earthquakes," said Professor Cenk Yaltırak, the project coordinator of MATAM.

“Citizens will be able to learn the earthquake resistance of the buildings they live in and take precautions accordingly. This means that thanks to the data we collect from small earthquakes, we will be able to determine how individual buildings will behave in a big earthquake. With this system, we will have detailed information in the Marmara region,” he said.

Emphasizing that there is no need for such a system to be installed in the U.S. or Japan, Yaltırak said, "In the lines extending to Mexico, Iran, Türkiye and Malaysia, construction and population are developing very rapidly and earthquake regulations and scientific research may be insufficient in these countries. Our aim is to reach the level of the U.S. and Japan."

Hakan Aran, the general manager of the İşbank, stated that they contributed 6.12 million euros to the establishment of MATAM.

"We do not have the power to prevent the earthquake disaster, but we know that the way to minimize the loss of life in earthquakes is through science accompanied by good morals. That is why we attach great importance to the establishment of this center,” he said.