Provincial risk reduction plans and information systems in local disaster management: Elazığ province

Every year in our country, disasters cause loss of life and property and have serious negative economic impacts. Effective, fast and accurate management of both pre-disaster risk and mitigation works and post-disaster response and improvement works will provide significant advantages in minimising these losses and impacts. Especially in determination of pre-disaster risks and implementation of measures to be taken in line with these risks and effective management of disasters, effective use of information technologies in addition to legislation, planning and co-operation among institutions increases its importance day by day. Increasing inter-institutional co-operation is encountered at every stage of the disaster management process. In 2021, Provincial Risk Reduction Plans, which were prepared in 81 provinces and entered into force, are the first step of this cooperation for pre-disaster processes. Supported by cognitive infrastructure and integration to geographical information systems, current disaster analyses of all our provinces were made before disasters and a general picture was presented. The opportunities offered by technology have made access to population, title deed, address and cadastral information extremely easy; and this information has been made available to the relevant people through the systems established at central and local level. Information systems make significant contributions to the more accurate, fast, efficient and fair execution of activities related to the determination of risky areas and buildings before disasters, all kinds of emergency aid needs of disaster victims after disasters and the provision of safe permanent settlements. In addition to the undeniable contribution of information systems; the quality of the information contained in these systems and incompatibilities between information systems may sometimes cause confusion in disaster management. In this study, disaster management and urban information systems in our country will be introduced, how the information systems in our cities are used in this context will be mentioned, and the problems experienced during this process and suggestions for their solution will be presented by giving examples from the works carried out due to the earthquake that occurred on 24.01.2020 in and around Elazığ Province. Key Words: Disaster, Local Disaster Management, Provincial Risk Mitigation Plans, Geographical Information Systems, Urban Information System, E-Municipality