Coseismic Landslides and Cascading Hazards of the February 6, 2023 Türkiye Earthquake: Preliminary Database Development and Modeling Analysis

by Ramazan Özgür İridere | Dec 14, 2023

Project Title: Coseismic Landslides and Cascading Hazards of the February 6, 2023 Turkiye Earthquake: Preliminary Database Development and Modeling Analysis
Project Type: NASA

The project prepared by an international team led by Prof. Dr. Erkan İstanbulluoğlu from the University of Washington and including Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Cüneyd Demirel, a faculty member of the Department of Civil Engineering at Istanbul Technical University, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tolga Görüm, a faculty member of the Department of Solid Earth Sciences at the Eurasia Earth Sciences Institute, was accepted and granted support by NASA.
Within the scope of the project, it is aimed to better understand the landslides and cascading hazards triggered by the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes that occurred on February 6, 2023. In this context, it is aimed to develop a preliminary database and model analyses in line with the multidisciplinary studies to be carried out by the project team. In addition to the landslides triggered by the earthquake in the study region, different parameters such as soil moisture, snow depth, air temperature, precipitation, runoff are taken into consideration in order to better understand the flood events that occur as a result of the rainfall after the earthquake. In this context, the pre-earthquake and post-earthquake conditions of the study area will be examined with the help of hydrological modeling by taking into account the discharge data from the State Hydraulic Works (DSİ) stations and precipitation data from the General Directorate of Meteorology (MGM) stations, as well as ERA5-Land satellite data, and the effect of seismic movements on landslides during the earthquake and the hydrological history of the flooding that occurred after the earthquake will be investigated. Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Cüneyd Demirel and PhD student Oğuzhan Murat Halat contribute to the project with a physically-based hydrologic model. The satellite-based calibration methods we developed in our article (DOI: 10.22541/essoar.169290547.74870875/v1), which was accepted in December in Water Resources Research (WRR), one of the most distinguished journals in the field of hydrology, and the SPAEF objective function, also developed by Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Cüneyd Demirel, will be used in the research process in this project.

With a budget of 120 thousand dollars, NASA support for the project will continue between May 27, 2023 and May 27, 2024. Project participants include Istanbul Technical University, Karadeniz Technical University, AFAD, University of Washington, University of Maryland Baltimore County, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Washington State Geological Survey and University of Twente.

İTÜ Faculty of Civil Engineering

It can be accepted that the history of ITU Civil Engineering Faculty was commenced in 1727 by the establishment of Humbarahane during the era of Damat İbrahim Paşa. However, this attempt was to no avail due to the martyrization of the studwents of this school by the Janissaries.

In 1734, during the grand viziership of Topal Osman Paşa, classes related to Civil Engineering was being taught in Hendesehane, which was founded in Üsküdar. Similarly, this school was also closed after three years due to the opposition of the Janissaries. The reasons of the tragedy that occured in Battle of Chesma, 1770 were inadequacy of the ships and the ignorance of the Ottoman Navy.

Although the Atlantic Map (1513) and the Map of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea (1523) by Piri Reis were the leading pieces of the era, Ottoman viziers were so ignorant that they claimed it was impossible for the Russian Baltic Fleet to reach the Mediterranean Sea assuming that there were no sea connection. With the proposal from Gazi Hasan Paşa and Baron de Tott, Mühendishane-i Bahri-i Humayun was established during the time of Sultan Mustafa III, aiming to train naval construction engineers. Since Ottoman Empire did not have any engineering schools at the time, military engineering classes were taught by French engineers beginning from 1784. French lecturers had to return to their country in 1788 with the increasing suppression from Austria and Russia, which were unwilling for the development and thriving of Ottoman Empire. In 1759, during the Grand Viziership of Koca Ragıp Paşa, Humbarahane was reopened in Karaağaç, Haliç (Golden Horn) and continued to teach even though it was incompetent. In 1792, Lağımcı Ocağı and Humbaracı Ocağı (Guild of Sappers) were established.