Use of UAVs in Earthquakes and UAV Base Location Selection for a Possible Marmara Earthquake

UAV’s are widely used in many fields today, and one of the most important of these fields is disaster management. The most significant disaster that comes to mind when mentioning disasters is undoubtedly earthquakes. UAV’s are used to support search and rescue operations before and especially after an earthquake. As Türkiye is located in an earthquake zone, earthquakes have affected and will continue to affect us from past to present. The Marmara earthquake, which is predicted to occur in the coming years, will cause great destruction considering the population density of the region. In this study, the use of UAV’s in earthquakes and the selection of the most suitable UAV base location for quick intervention without being affected by a potential Marmara earthquake was conducted using the TOPSIS method, which is one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods with criteria weights. As for the UAV class, MALE class UAV’s, which are produced by Türkiye and classified by NATO, were preferred due to their mission duration and payload capacity. While determining the alternatives, seven airports close to the Marmara region but not on the fault line were selected. The criteria and their weights were determined based on the opinions of five UAV pilots, and a total of six criteria were chosen. As a result of applying the TOPSIS method, Sivrihisar Aviation Center was determined to be the most suitable UAV base for intervention in a potential Marmara earthquake, being the closest to the ideal solution among the selected alternatives.