The Evaluation of Earthquake Risk of Existing Buildings in Başakşehir District of Istanbul Province

In order to ensure public safety and sustainable urban growth, it is imperative that existing buildings in new residential districts have their seismic risk evaluated. Başakşehir district is a place where new settlements are significantly dense in Istanbul. In this study, two pilot regions were selected within the district and the entire district was subjected to scenario earthquake hazard and damage estimation analysis. Four historical earthquakes and one instrumental earthquake that affected the Marmara region were chosen as scenario earthquakes and predicted earthquake damage analyses were conducted as part of the study. The initial step involved compiling the structure inventory data in the Başakşehir pilot districts. Both the building inventory of the pilot regions and the building inventory of the Başakşehir district were updated through field research for this procedure and the acquisition of building licenses from pertinent institutions and organizations. The building inventory obtained in the second stage was transferred to the geographic information system program QGİS. After this procedure, the Earthquake Loss Estimation Routine (ELER) program, which carries out earthquake damage analysis, was used to compute the estimated earthquake damage analyses for the various regions. The distribution of damage that occurred in the research regions was transferred at the final stage as a consequence of the analysis that was conducted, and assessments were produced using comparisons between the regions. Consequently, it was shown that the new settlements performed better for earthquake scenarios. This study can contribute to additional scientific studies that will estimate post-earthquake damage to existing structures in other districts of Istanbul.