The Sustainable Scale of Earthquake Awareness, Development, Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

Bangladesh Cyclone in 1990, Luzon Island 1991 Mt. Pinatubo explosion in the Philippines, floods in China between 1991 and 1995, 1994 Colombia Landslide, 1995 Indian Earthquake, 1995 Kobe Earthquake, 2004 Southeast Asian Tsunami, 1996 US Hurricane Fran, 2007 Peru Earthquake and 2011 Japan Earthquake are the major current examples of the destruction of natural disasters (Munich; 2010). The fact that more than half of the world’s population is in cities and the continuous rise in this rate increases the risks of loss in cities (UNCHS, 2009). One of the most important impacts of natural disasters is on the infrastructure systems in cities and these negative effects become clear as the economic levels of the countries decrease (DHA, 1995). Natural disasters are natural events that have important implications for human life in every country and their economic, social and sociological effects. In other words, disasters are the events that society will have difficulty to overcome. They also affect the society in general by disrupting daily life and human activities, which poses great problems in terms of economic, physical and social aspects (Ergünay, 1996). Natural disasters are earthquake, storm, avalanche, flood, landslide, drought, volcano eruptions, and frost and so on (Munich, 2010; Şahin and Sipahioğlu, 2007; Kanat, 2016). The negative effects of natural disasters to life are increasing day by day. The loss of life caused by natural disasters in the world in 2009 was four times higher than in the 1980s. It was determined that 950 natural disasters occurred in 2010 were much higher than the previous 30-year average (Munich, 2010: 20). The earthquake is one of the disasters Abstract