To assist in the reduction of losses in a disastrous earthquake in Istanbul a dense strong motion network is established. One hundred strong motion accelerometers have been placed in populated areas of Istanbul, within an area of approximately 50x30km, to constitute a network that will enable rapid shake map and damage assessment after a damaging earthquake. After triggered by an earthquake, each station will process the streaming strong motion to yield the spectral accelerations at specific periods and will send these parameters in the form of SMS messages to the main data center in KOERI through ARIA GSM network service. A shake map and damage distribution will be automatically generated. For transmission of the Rapid Response information to the concerned agencies (Istanbul Governorate, First Army Headquarters and Istanbul Municipality) through reliable and redundant communication channels: digital radio modem and GPRS communication systems are used.
Apparently the municipalities have already been mapping buildings that are expected to collapse, but given what I've seen firsthand of the way municipalities respond to these hazards, I'm not filled with faith by this news.
I don't necessarily believe anything is truly being done except for some showy stuff like the data center, etc. that make the municipality look good without much real effort beyond. In addition, I am not sure how excited they will be to integrate a public-sourced information system which would mean collection of data that they will not be able to control. We'll have to see.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's what I was getting at. As we both know, there's a big difference between laws and plans that look terrific on paper and meaningful implementation.
ReplyDelete