Earthquake expert makes statement regarding 3 districts in Istanbul: 'They do not have good soil...'

Prof. Dr. Mahmut Bilgehan conducted earthquake investigations in Hatay under the assignment of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, within the framework of the project titled "Lessons Learned from the February 6, 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes and Our Country's Preparedness for New Earthquakes."

Bilgehan stated that Istanbul's Avcılar, Küçükçekmece, and Büyükçekmece districts could face major destruction because they have poor soil conditions.

"URBAN TRANSFORMATION MUST BE ACCELERATED"

Bilgehan said, "We know that an Istanbul earthquake will significantly affect the Büyükçekmece, Avcılar, and Küçükçekmece areas. The earthquake will heavily impact the parts of those regions close to the coast. This is because they do not have good soil. For this reason, urban transformation in those regions needs to be carried out as quickly as possible. Poor buildings must be demolished, and buildings that comply with regulations and are resistant to earthquakes must be constructed" he stated.

"BASEMENTS ARE IMPORTANT"

Stating that they have determined that buildings with basements in the earthquake zone sustained less damage, Bilgehan said, "I think importance should be given to building basements. It is worth noting that when a basement is not built, a weakness emerges in that building's resistance to earthquakes. A basement both increases the foundation depth from the ground and, when we equip the perimeter of the basement with shear walls—that is, when we build shear walls around the beams—we can say that the building will behave more resiliently against earthquakes. It must be said that reinforced concrete shear walls make a huge contribution to absorbing earthquake effects and shear forces. You might be able to construct a building with just columns, but in terms of earthquake resistance, shear walls are absolutely necessary" he said.

FIRST EARTHQUAKE RESISTANCE, THEN SEISMIC ISOLATORS

Providing information about seismic isolators, Prof. Dr. Bilgehan spoke as follows:

"Recently, seismic isolators are being installed under buildings. Isolators are a topic that comes up after every earthquake. A seismic isolator, of course, tries to dampen the energy by moving the building when an earthquake occurs. This is a good behavior. But a building where we install a seismic isolator must already be constructed in an earthquake-resistant manner in the first place. You need to install the isolator after that. I am saying this for newly constructed buildings. If we build buildings in accordance with the earthquake code and follow the rules, there will be no need for seismic isolators anyway. Frankly, we could live in those buildings comfortably. Therefore, there will be no need for isolators"

News Source: 12punto