Disaster management in smart cities and evaluation of Rize people's awareness of disaster management in smart cities

Today, the rapid increase in urbanisation brings along many problems such as transportation, infrastructure, sustainability of natural resources and efficient use of energy. With the development of technology, the concept of smart city has gained importance in order to use the resources of the city more efficiently and to ensure that people can receive better service. Smart city is considered as a city that produces solutions to the needs of citizens by using technology and increases the living standards of people. One of the aims of smart cities is to make the city ready for disasters and to work to ensure that the negative consequences of disasters are minimised. As disasters occur in cities where people live more densely, the effects and severity of disasters increase. Disasters cause loss of life and property damages in the residential areas where they occur. Disaster management should be given importance in order to prevent losses caused by disasters and to make disasters manageable. Since the time, place and form of disasters are not certain, the disaster process should be made controllable by reducing the existing risks with disaster management and taking the necessary measures. With the disaster management process, it is aimed to reduce the possible losses and damages that may be caused by disasters by determining the activities to be carried out before and after a possible disaster. In order for disaster management to be successful, it is necessary to prepare the risk management phase well before the disaster occurs. All activities to be carried out before the disaster will reduce the impact of the disaster on the city during and after the disaster. By integrating disaster management into cities and making cities smart, cities will be minimally affected from possible disasters. In order to realise this, it is necessary to give importance to smart city applications for disasters. With smart city applications developed for disaster management by using technology, it is possible to make the city ready for disasters such as fire, landslide, flood and flood. In addition, cities are made ready for disasters with disaster plans prepared in cities against disasters such as earthquakes. Especially disaster information system, smart notification system, early warning system and mobile applications created according to disaster types contribute to informing and guiding people as well as minimising the negative effects of disasters. This study focuses on the examples and applications of smart city applications prepared for disasters in the world and in Turkey. In other words, it focuses on smart city applications in disaster management showing good practice examples in different parts of the world. When we look at the smart city applications developed for disasters in Turkey, smart notification systems, disaster information systems and early warning systems come to the fore. In Izmir, which is in a risky position in terms of forest fire disaster, smart notification systems have been developed to ensure that forest fires are taken under control by early detection and rapid intervention before they reach the size of a disaster. With this system, which was first used in Izmir, forest fires have reached a safer level. In Beylikdüzü district of Istanbul, which is in a risky position in terms of landslides and earthquakes, a disaster information system has been developed with Beylikdüzü Ready application in order to reduce the negative situations that may be caused by these disasters. Through this system, the level of knowledge of citizens against disasters is increased. Since the main cause of floods in Turkey is unplanned urbanisation, early warning systems have been developed in Istanbul, where the rate of urbanisation and population density is very high, to reduce the damages that may be caused by floods and flood disasters. With the observation stations installed on the streams, it is possible to reduce the loss of life and property by warning the individuals in the region when the risk occurs before the flood event occurs. The early warning system also operates as an icing early warning system in Istanbul. In order to prevent transportation disruptions due to snow and icing in Istanbul, icing early warning systems have been installed in critical locations determined by experts. Thanks to this system, snow thickness and icing time are predicted in advance and early intervention is made in the risky area. In Izmir, which is in a risky position in terms of earthquake hazard, a mobile application called Emergency Izmir was developed in order to make search and rescue operations more efficient after the earthquake occurred. With this application, it operates as a smart city application where citizens trapped under the rubble can report their location more quickly. In addition, smart city applications provide services in areas such as transport, security, energy and health in various cities, especially in Ankara, Antalya, Bursa and Kahramanmaraş. When we examine the examples of smart city applications developed for disasters in the world, it is seen that there are applications operating in a similar way. The Smoke Detectors application, which enables intervention before the fire event reaches the size of a disaster, is used in the city of New Orleans in the Louisiana State of the USA as a smart notification system. The Valarm system, which works similar to an early warning system to combat floods and flood disasters, is used in Virginia, USA. In order to protect the city of Vejle in Denmark, which has a high flood risk, from flooding and overflow, flood protection gates were built on the rivers. In order to make this application more efficient, the Smart Water Vejle application, which works similarly to the early warning system logic, has been developed. An underground storage system has been developed to protect Tokyo, the capital of Japan, from floods and flood disasters and to ensure safer management of flood waters. Stockholm, Sweden has redesigned Hammarby-Sjöstad neighbourhoods within the scope of smart city in order to combat global warming and climate change disaster. Stockholm authorities have reduced fossil fuel consumption and increased the use of renewable energy sources in order to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases harmful to the atmosphere. In this way, greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced to half of the national average in Stockholm. In addition, in order to combat disasters such as global warming, climate change and environmental pollution, smart city applications are carried out in cities such as Songdo (South Korea), Barcelona (Spain), Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Copenhagen (Denmark). All these application examples contribute to more effective, more successful and more efficient disaster management in smart cities. In this study, the research method consists of literature review and questionnaire. With the literature review, published data on the subject were analysed and the subject was supported by the questionnaire. As a result of the literature review, it is expected that the effects of possible disasters that may occur in cities where problems such as environmental problems and uncontrolled urbanisation have reached serious dimensions will be very large. Therefore, in order to make cities more livable and to create cities more resistant to disasters, smart city applications should be given importance and disaster management should be integrated into smart cities. With the survey research conducted, it is aimed to evaluate the level of knowledge of the society on disaster management in smart cities and to increase the knowledge of the individuals who state that they do not have sufficient level of knowledge on the subject with the information-training included in the survey study. The main purpose of this research is to ensure that people are more prepared for disasters and minimally affected by disasters by introducing smart city applications that show that disasters are manageable by revealing the effect of the knowledge portfolio of individuals on the subject in the success of disaster management in smart cities. Another aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants and disaster awareness, knowledge portfolio status about smart city and its applications and smart city applications in the disaster management process. The research was carried out with the participation of 506 individuals aged 18 and over living in the Central District of Rize Province. The data obtained as a result of the research were analysed in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 25 programme. Frequency (number) and percentage distributions, mean response values and standard deviations of the data entered into the SPSS 25 programme were calculated. Pearson Chi-Square Test was used to compare the differences between groups. Statistical significance level was accepted as α<0.05. Cronbach Alpha Reliability Test was applied to determine the reliability level of the questionnaire. According to Cronbach Alpha Reliability Analysis, the reliability of the scale was found as α=0,832. As a result of the analyses, 56.1% of the participants stated that their knowledge about smart city and its applications was not sufficient and 81% of these participants stated that they wanted to receive information-training on the subject and participated in the information-training on smart city applications in the smart city and disaster management process prepared in the questionnaire. Most of the participants who attended the training were generally satisfied with the training and stated that their knowledge increased as a result of the training. In addition, the participants who attended the training found the underground storage system for flood waters used in Tokyo (52%) more successful among the smart city applications developed for disasters abroad. Among the smart city applications developed for disasters in Turkey, they found early warning systems (52%) more successful. The analyses made to determine the effect of the knowledge portfolio of individuals on the subject in the success of disaster management in smart cities were analysed according to Pearson Chi-Square test between the people who stated that their knowledge portfolio on smart city applications in the disaster management process was sufficient and the people who stated that their knowledge portfolio on smart city applications in the disaster management process was not sufficient and wanted to participate in the training on the subject. It has been observed that the adequacy of Rize people's knowledge on smart city and its applications in the disaster management process affects the answers to the questions on disaster awareness and smart city applications in the disaster management process. It has been determined that the answers given to the questions on smart city applications in the disaster management process by the participants who stated that their knowledge on smart city and its applications is not sufficient and participated in the information training on smart city and its applications included in the survey study are more accurate compared to the participants who stated that their knowledge portfolio on the subject is sufficient. As a result of the analyses, the importance of increasing the knowledge level of the society for the success of disaster management in smart cities has emerged. In most of the Pearson Chi-Square test analyses conducted to determine the relationship between the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants and smart city applications in the disaster management process, a statistically significant relationship was found. As a result, smart city applications in the field of disaster management discussed in this study increase the resilience of the society against disasters and make cities more resilient against disasters. Therefore, smart city applications for disasters should be developed and their usage areas should be expanded. In addition, it is possible to make disaster management in smart cities more useful by increasing the knowledge level of individuals. Because it was determined that the participants who participated in the training gave more correct answers to the questions about smart city applications used in the disaster management process. In addition, disaster management can be made more successful by expanding the use of smart notification systems in fire incidents; early warning systems in disasters such as floods, floods, tsunamis and storms; and disaster information systems in disasters such as landslides, earthquakes and avalanches.