Page 227 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 4

Sezayi Köse - Zeynep Ayan - Ebru Vural
Kübra Özcivan - Yeşim Koçdemir

with the amendment authorizing Metropolitan Municipalities to declare
urban transformation and development areas within the boundaries of the
metropolitan municipality and the adjacent areas, the scope of the authority
to declare such areas was extended.
While this process was ongoing, 644 citizens lost their lives and 1966
citizens were injured in the earthquakes that occurred subsequently with the
epicenter at Van Erciş on 23.10.2011 and at Van Edremit on 9.11.2011. 2,307
structures were destroyed as a result of the earthquakes which caused quite
devastating damage due to the building stock type of the region. In the field
studies carried out after the earthquake, it was determined that approximately
31,870 houses, 8,849 workplaces and 9,602 barns were severely damaged, and
the demolition process was initiated, and the construction of safe housing for
33,663 disaster victims directly affected by the destruction in the region was
launched and conducted in a fast way (www.afad. gov.tr , 2023).
Considering the period after Van earthquake in terms of legal and
administrative aspects, the necessity of legal arrangements indicated by
the lessons learnt from the practices conducted before the earthquake
became obvious once again, and thus a draft law was prepared by Public
Works, Zoning, Transportation and Tourism Commission under Turkish Grand
National Assembly. As specified in “General Preamble” of this draft law, the
regions that were exposed to or are likely to be exposed to the disaster risk are
identified within the scope of Law no. 7269 in force, and declared as “disaster-
prone zone” and it is planned to evacuate the houses and workplaces in such
“disaster-prone zones” and to transfer them to other regions. This situation
requires a large-scale evacuation and transportation process, which result in
too much expenditures. In addition, the declaration of a region as a “disaster-
prone zone” disrupts the normal flow of life in this region, makes it necessary
to take some “extraordinary” measures and also leads to social problems.
For this reason, new legal arrangements were needed that would allow the
structures in these areas to be transformed and, if necessary, to be transferred
to other places, primarily on the basis of “volunteering” without the needing
to declare it as a disaster-prone region. As it can be perceived from this, the
main purpose of the Law No. 6306 in force has been determined as conducting
the urban transformation activities on the basis of area and parcel, without
allowing the formation of areas requiring intervention.
Law No. 6306 on the Transformation of Areas under Disaster Risk entered
into force with the Official Gazette no. 28309 of 31.05.2012 provides the
opportunity to determine the area that is subjected to the implementation by
addressing the urban transformation process in 3 concepts including high risk
areas, reserve building areas and high risk buildings.

216 The Journal of Environment, Urban and Climate