Türkiye to exchange quake technologies with Japan

ANKARA

Türkiye will receive the quake insulator legislation from Japan and provide the country with damage assessment software in return, as the protocol between the two countries will be signed in April.

Banu Aslan, the general director of Construction Works at the Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry, briefed the parliament’s Earthquake Investigation Commission and noted that damage assessment techniques improved considerably in Türkiye, where quakes occur frequently.

Aslan stated that damage assessment works are carried out in three stages. The first stage includes obtaining data on how many teams should be formed with specially programmed UAVs or “drones” and planning accordingly, when they arrive at the quake site.

These are not just regular drones that can render images, as they can detect the slope and the size of the cracks and assign their coordinates, Aslan added.

In the second stage, teams of engineers and architects enter each building and carry out damage assessment works.

In the third stage, mass inspection is carried out with experimental devices. The Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) is immediately informed as devices detect the structures that are bent or at risk of displacement due to aftershocks, Aslan said.

She also noted that they have received international awards for their screening method, referred to as the “Türkiye method.”

She stated that the damage assessment system, which was first implemented in 2016, has become a model for the rest of the world as well.

She also said that the Electronic Concrete Monitoring System (EBİS) attracted the interest of countries across the globe.

They have signed protocols with eight countries so far, and Japan is going to be the next one, Aslan added.