Asses the earthquake risk of your building

Turkey’s digital mapmaker Başarsoft developed a mobile application called DepremRiskim (Earthquake Risk), measuring the risk of earthquake resistance of buildings to increase the sensitivity to earthquakes. The DepremRiskim application was developed based on the American Federal Emergency Management Agency’s FEMA-154-Rapid Visual Assessment of Buildings for Potential Earthquake Hazards. The seismic zoning which was created according to the data necessary for assessing Turkey Earthquake Hazard Map published in the Official Gazette in 2018. With the DepremRiskim application, which is completely prepared using scientific data, citizens take photos of their buildings and enter the year of construction into the system. They then answer a few questions about the building system. The application reports the risk value of the building to the user within the framework of a scientific infrastructure. Since there is no access to a high resolution open database of the floor type where the building is located, the report is available for all ground conditions. According to the FEMA standard, heavy damage is defined as “the degree of damage exceeding 60% of the initial construction cost” of a building. As a result of the calculation, if the score (S value) produced by the application is 2 and/or below, the risk is reported as high, if it is close to 3 and/or above, the risk is reported as low.

Başarsoft’s CEO Alim Küçükpehlivan, emphasizing that they aim to increase the awareness of citizens about living in earthquake safe zones and buildings with this application, expressed that: “We need to get used to living with earthquakes, but it is up to us to reduce the predictable risks. For this reason, we think everyone has the right to know how risky the building they live in. With this application, ending the risky situation of a building is a gain for our people. I also would like to thank Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University Faculty Member Prof. Şenol Hakan Kutoğlu for his contributions. The DepremRiskim application, which allows each user to generate 5 reports free of charge, can be downloaded directly from Google Play, Apple Appstore and HuaweiAppGalery. Detailed information is available at www.depremriskim.com”