HR: 14:30h
AN: U53B-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Urban Seismic Risk Perception and its Impact on Seismic Vulnerability in Unauthorized Housing Settlements of Istanbul, Turkey
AU: * Green, R
EM: rag16@cornell.edu
AF: Earth Institute, Columbia University Civil Engineering 610 S.W. Mudd MC 4709, New York, NY 10027 United States
AB: Unauthorized housing is a primary means of shelter in urban centers throughout the industrializing world. These homes, often built on squatted land or by self builders, are frequently un-engineered multi-story concrete apartment buildings that are highly vulnerable to natural disasters. Yet, the production of unauthorized housing and its relationship to seismic risk is often overlooked in global efforts to improve building codes and develop regional disaster management strategies. Istanbul, Turkey, like many rapidly industrializing cities of the developing world, is a city with over 50 percent illegal housing. It is also located on one of the world's most active fault lines with a high probability of a large earthquake in the near future. A recent study of risk perception conducted in four diverse districts of Istanbul indicates that risk perception is critical to understanding patterns of vulnerability across legal and illegal districts. However, contrary to assumptions that the most vulnerable residents are those least able to make risk decisions, this study shows that residents of unauthorized housing districts, while being exposed to elevated seismic risk, are most likely to take actions that impact their risk. These actions include choosing rental apartments and self-designing and building homes based on risk perception. Yet, despite considerable effort to reduce exposure to seismic risk, a lack of knowledge regarding the components of hazard and vulnerability often results in actions that are ineffective or have created heightened vulnerability. There is a critical need for members of the scientific and engineering community to engage with residents living in unauthorized housing districts. It is these residents that can quickly turn knowledge about hazard and vulnerability into actions that can reduce their own risk and in aggregate the overall risk that urban centers face.
DE: 6309 Decision making under uncertainty
DE: 7223 Earthquake interaction, forecasting, and prediction (1217, 1242)
SC: Union [U]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005