Implementation of gis-based multi criteria decision making methods in the context of earthquake sensitive planning:Yalova city center case

Especially after 1999 Marmara Earthquakes and 2011 Van Earthquake occured in Turkey, one can once again state that earthquakes as natural disasters are too destrcutive to human life. Turkey has been a witness to massive earthquakes throughout the history and numerous loss of lives have been observed. It is highly probable that Turkey might be exposed to massive earthquakes in the following years so that in order to ignore the negative effects of a massive earthquake, pre-disaster activities should be emphasized. Pre-disaster actions have great importance and should be seen as the most important part of the disaster management. However, it could be argued that post-disaster actions, namely relieving policies, become intense considering the recent past. Reaching today, it could be stated that pre-disaster activities have been gained importance gradually in the context of disaster management process. Usage of geographical information systems (GIS) is very efficient in that sense. By the time of both pre and post disaster activities as well as in the course of the disaster activities, GIS could be used as to reduce disaster risks. In this study, GIS is used as to determine the risks caused by urban and ground based characteristics of city center of Yalova province. For this purpose, first of all urban and ground criteria are processed within the context of Analitic Hierarchy Process (AHP). As result of AHP, urban risk and ground risk maps are produced. Then, these maps are used as input maps in the context of TOPSIS analysis. In consequence of TOPSIS analysis, the general map which includes both urban risks and ground risks is generated.