Work begun three years ago to create an earthquake early warning system in Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city located on the country’s west coast, is nearing completion, Turkish media reported citing Professor Hasan Sözbilir, a geological expert at the 9th September University (Dokuz Eylül Universitesi) in Izmir.
The system, created with the university’s own resources, consists of a multidisciplinary team specialised in various fields of engineering, and is designed to send an early warning up to 16 seconds before an earthquake occurs, allowing the population to take precautions and take shelter in time. The project is part of Turkey’s efforts to study more than 100 tectonic faults through the country’s universities, efforts that have been stepped up in the wake of the earthquakes that devastated southeastern Anatolia last year, leaving more than 53,000 people dead.
The earthquake early warning system will be deployed in 12 locations in Izmir – which already suffered a devastating earthquake in late 2020 that left 115 people dead – in collaboration with Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD). For Sözbilir, however, the important thing is to take proactive measures in the face of earthquakes, such as constructing resistant buildings. “What we saw after the 6 February earthquakes (in southeast Turkey) is that after the disaster, we had nowhere to house the survivors. We need to create resilient housing before the earthquake strikes,” he stressed.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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