State of the Art Rapid Repairability Assessment and Reconstruction of Damaged Structures to Reduce Internally Displaced Population
July 2024
The 2023 Turkey earthquake caused 35,000 mid-rise buildings to collapse, killing 51,000 people and leaving 4.1 million people homeless. The program conducted by the largest municipality in the affected area, Gaziantep, provided innovative rapid shelter solutions for Internally Displaced Population (IDP) by assisting them in returning to repairable buildings. These projects have a three-pronged strategy: First, the program assisted displaced families by providing information to restore their confidence in the structural safety of buildings. The program identified undamaged structures and rebranded them as habitable through publicly visible “green tagging.” 3,500 undamaged structures were assessed, supporting an estimated 90,000 people. A broader community communication campaign was implemented to provide the community with information on the structural safety of assessed structures through in-person events and the distribution of communication materials online. These communication campaigns reached an estimated 200,000 people across Turkey, including more than 5,000 people through in-person events. Second, the program provided technical assistance on cost-efficient, rapidly implementable repairs required to make light and moderately damaged building stock habitable. The program conducted state-of-the-art app-based vulnerability assessment surveys to identify the vulnerability classification and cost-efficient repair method based on locally available materials and labor for each damage type. Bill of Quantities (BOQs) and repair cost estimates generated enabled households to repair their homes rapidly. 3,100 structures were assessed, supporting an estimated 75,000 people. Third, the project supported earthquake-affected communities’ quick and effective recovery by broadly disseminating activity approaches, resources, and materials, including guidelines and demonstrations on safe repair methodologies. These programs equipped an estimated 165,000 people in the project areas and 200,000 people across other earthquake-affected communities in Turkey with improved knowledge of structural safety issues, promoted safe repairs and reduced the number of displaced people living in overcrowded camps while supporting the areas’ self-recovery and economic revitalization.
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