“12th of November 1999 Düzce Earthquake Panel and Commemoration Program” was held under joint initiative of Düzce Governorship, Düzce Municipality, Düzce University, Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), Tur-kish Red Crescent, and Düzce Search and Rescue Team in the 17th Anniversary of Düzce Earthquake for our 710 citizens who lost their lives in said earthquake.
IPCU provided information about activities under the ISMEP Project to a group of people consisting of Sefer Taştan from Düzce Municipality’s Development Directorate, Assistant Prof. Dr. Ahmet Beycioğlu, Research Assistant Ahmet Hamdi Serdar and students from Düzce University, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Techno logy, who visited Istanbul under the program which started on November 9.
The first visit led by IPCU Deputy Director Emin Atak was made to Zeynep Kamil Maternity and Children’s Hospital which was opened upon completion of first phase of retrofitting and renovation works. Then the Göztepe Training and Research Hospital which was under reconstruction process was visited where the participants were provided information about the seismic isolators used in construction of the hospital, drawing special attention to importance of seismic isolators. In the visit to the hospital which candidate for LEED Gold Certificate, detailed information was also provided regarding other design aspects of the hospital required for qualification for LEED Gold Certificate. Finally, the group visited Marmara University Başıbüyük Training and Research Hospital, which is the biggest hospital in the world retrofitted with seismic isolation technology, where a presentation was made to the participants, providing information about the hospital.
The EARTHQUAKE Reality of our Country!
In the commemoration ceremony held in Düzce on November 12, Kemal Demir, President of Turkish Red Crescent’s Düzce Office, delivered the opening speech, followed by the panel sessions with speech of Alper Balcı, Deputy Governor of Düzce. Among participants of the panel were speakers from Yıldız Technical University, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul University, Gazi University and Düzce University, as well as Prof. Dr. Shigeru Kakumoto, Prof. Dr. Koji Yoshikawa, Dr. Yoshio Kajitani from Japan and IPCU Director Kazım Gökhan Elgin. In his speech, Mr. Elgin mentioned about the works which IPCU have carried out in Istanbul since 2006 under Istanbul Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Project (ISMEP).
Highlighting the earthquake risk and earthquake reality of our country, Mr. Elgin expressed that they had carried out and would continue to carry out a wide range of works such as; upgrading of communication systems, capacity building of first responding agencies, construction of command control and coordination centres, trainings and raising awareness of community, retrofitting and/or reconstruction of public buildings, protecting of cultural heritage and mitigation of risk in historical buildings. Addressed to the technologies which they use in the Kartal Dr. Lütfi Kırdar Training and Research Hospital, Okmeydanı Training and Research Hospital and Göztepe Training and Research Hospital under construction, as well as to the importance of seismic isolation along with the approach to construct structures of the future which are both resistant to earthquake and energy efficient, Mr. Elgin said that their operational field did not only include hospital buildings but also other public buildings such as school buildings, dormitories, polyclinics, social service buildings, etc., and that they retrofitted and/or reconstructed 1288 public buildings in 10 years.