The Aftermath of the Earthquake and Preparing for the Next One

Koç University Researchers Are Determined in Earthquake Studies

February 6th, 2023! We experienced one of the biggest natural disasters of the century. Once again, both humanity and nature got destroyed. Tens of thousands of our people lost their lives, even more, were left injured, with billions of financial loss, and an important part of our historical and cultural heritage was destroyed. It has been almost three months, while the wounds slowly heal, and efforts continue to support those affected by the earthquake. On the other hand, scientists carry on designing studies to reduce the destructive effects of possible earthquakes and try to take steps to put these into practice.

In addition to the extraordinary support from volunteer citizens and NGOs, many public institutions and organisations are producing projects that can be useful in line with their own expertise. Koç University is among institutions that embrace the subject with all its departments and workforce, putting full weight behind it all. Researchers in all departments of the university, from medicine to nursing, from engineering and sciences to social sciences, design a number of projects both individually and collectively. Even though not all of them have been implemented yet, firm steps are being taken towards effective collaborations and interdisciplinary studies. In addition to projects under the TÜBİTAK BİÇABA Program, carried out with students affected by the earthquake, many independent projects are about to come to life.

Aid and Support

After major disasters, citizens, public forces, NGOs and teams from foreign countries immediately get to work to meet basic needs such as search and rescue, health services, nutrition and shelter. Koç University also sent academic members from the Faculty of Medicine to the earthquake zone, in addition to the dozens of studies it started to provide search and rescue as well as financial support. Dr. Coşkun Yorulmaz, along with Assist. Prof. Arda Akay and Assoc. Prof. Laçin Lal Çakır from the Department of Forensic Medicine at the School of Medicine performed forensic identification and autopsy procedures at the mass grave site in Narlıca, Antakya. Their activities included identifying the remains, collecting DNA samples, encoding, and creating a DNA bank, as well as conducting autopsies when necessary.

The School of Nursing is currently undertaking a project focused on the impact of therapeutic play-based hygiene and sleep activities on sleep disorders and hygiene behaviours among children residing in earthquake-affected areas. They are also preparing a project to evaluate the impact of first aid training, which will be delivered to school-age children living in the earthquake zone using games and interactive methods, on their coping skills during emergencies and their level of knowledge.

A research group for humanitarian aid and health operations (National Working Group -TR-Humanitarian and Health Operations and Sustainability-TR-HOPES) was established with the participation of many researchers working in the fields of humanitarian and health operations from abroad as well as Koç University Faculty Members. The group gained an interdisciplinary character after the Kahramanmaraş earthquake and now consists of approximately 50-55 researchers from fields such as industrial engineering, operational management, simulation, public health, economics, health sciences, and medicine. In addition, KUISCID (Koç University Research Centre for Infectious Diseases) has taken steps to prepare for potential epidemics and infections in the region and continues its efforts in collaboration with VKV Healthcare Institutions.

Intervention and Recovery

Following the immediate first-step aid and support, many project ideas were developed in order to minimize the damage of the current earthquake and reduce the negative effects of possible earthquakes.

Prof. Sibel Salman from the Department of Industrial Engineering got appointed as the coordinator of the logistics group under AFAD’s General Directorate of Earthquake and Risk Mitigation. The group will work on temporary sheltering, planning material, and service procurement to container cities. They will also monitor the large population movement nationwide and prepare settlement plans for these new cities, using algorithms they will create with the help of mathematical models that will determine the needs and goals correctly.

Prof. Erdal Aydın from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering is working on the “Meeting Emergency Electricity Needs after Disasters using Decentralized Mobile (Renewable) Energy Systems with Stochastic Programming” project. The project aims to explore opportunities to plan and design mobile renewable and conventional energy system networks and their components in an optimized way under uncertainty. These networks will automatically become off-grid during a possible earthquake and locally provide emergency power in places damaged the most –which will be much needed in search and rescue operations, heating, cooking, and producing drinking water from seawater when necessary. Even without an earthquake, these networks can still be useful for the local electricity demand.

Prof. Barış Yıldız from the Department of Industrial Engineering is working with Prof. Sibel Salman and Prof. Dr. Shridar Tayur (Carnegie Mellon) on the “Post-disaster Emergency Road Traffic Management” project. In this project, they are working on how to manage the road network and traffic in a way that will enable the first aid and rescue teams to reach the necessary locations without being affected by heavy traffic after a disaster, while also ensuring that the disaster victims can reach the places they want to reach (such as hospitals, schools, or the houses of their relatives) as soon as possible. To solve this complex problem, they are concentrating on new methods that take advantage of new opportunities offered by quantum computers. In this context, studies continue on an exemplary application based on real data from Avcılar in Istanbul.

Prof. Yıldız is also working on a TÜBİTAK project on post-disaster vehicle traffic management that is carried out by TED University, where METU and Koç University provide research support. The project works on evacuation plans for some regions in Istanbul that are prone to tsunamis as a secondary disaster that may occur after a possible earthquake in the region. With the aim of directing citizens from regions that may be affected by the tsunami to vertical shelters and safe areas on foot and by vehicle, the project also seeks to determine location-based dynamic risk levels, examine post-disaster human behaviour and decision-making mechanisms, choose the locations for vertical shelters in a way that will minimize risks, designate the vertical shelters and safe zones that citizens will be directed to, and decide on the roads and routes that should be used during evacuation.

Prof. Barış Akgün from the Department of Computer Engineering is currently working on projects focusing on “Post-earthquake damage/impact distribution estimation” and “Resource allocation and post-disaster applications utilizing reinforcement learning in stochastic environments” with the aim of providing an earthquake damage estimation and learn how to calculate relief resource allocation very quickly.

Koç University’s KARMA Lab also works to provide support for those affected by the earthquake with two projects. It has recently launched the February 6th Memoir project, a platform that can be easily accessed by everyone, which aims to preserve the collective grief and loss we experienced as a society as of February 6th, 2023, to transfer the experience to future generations and render it unforgettable. KARMA Lab is also developing Aktif.org, an online platform designed to facilitate civic engagement and cooperation for anyone willing to contribute. The platform main objective is to increase the visibility of the needs, active NGOs, and ongoing projects in the earthquake zone, and to enable more effective coordination.

Impact Assessment

Prof. Kamil Yılmaz from the College of Administrative Sciences and Economics presented his paper titled “The Economic Impact of the Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes on February 6, 2023”, while Prof. Selva Demiralp prepared two articles on the “Impacts of the Earthquake on Wealth Accumulation and Economic growth” for BBC Türkiye and the Istanbul Political Research Institute (İstanPol), providing insight on the economic aftermath of the earthquake.

Koç University Social Impact Forum (KUSIF), on the other hand, is a founding member of Turkey Social Entrepreneurship Network (TSGA) and brings together institutions that support social entrepreneurship in Turkey every 15 days at the Social Enterprise Support Organizations Coordination Meetings.

These are just some of the projects realized or designed within Koç University. We know that all of our universities have utilised all their staff and students to keep developing bright ideas and projects that will reduce the effects of this deep destruction to some extent, and minimise the damage from any possible future disasters. We have great confidence that we can tackle this problem in the light and guidance of science.

For further detailed information on studies and research carried out and being planned at Koç University, you can visit https://www.ku.edu.tr/deprem-information/