Tezer, Azime

Yigiter, Reyhan

English

Research Papers in Economics

40TH CONGRESS OF THE EUROPEAN REGIONAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION
29 AUGUST - 1 SEPTEMBER 2000 BARCELONA
IMPACTS OF 17TH AUGUST KOCAELI EARTHQUAKE ON THE
DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS
Azime TEZER (Assist.Prof.Dr.) Reyhan YIGITER (Assist.Prof.Dr.)
Istanbul Technical University (ITU)
Urban and Regional Planning Department
Taskisla, 80191 Taksim ISTANBUL /
TURKEY
Tel: +90 212 293 13 00/2320Ext.
Fax: + 90 212 251 48 95
E-Mail:tezera itu.edu.tr
Istanbul Technical University (ITU)
Urban and Regional Planning Department
Taskisla, 80191 Taksim ISTANBUL /
TURKEY
Tel: +90 212 293 13 00/2320Ext.
Fax: + 90 212 251 48 95
E-Mail:yigiter itu.edu.trIMPACTS OF 17TH AUGUST KOCAELI EARTHQUAKE ON THE
DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS
ABSTRACT
After the Kocaeli Earthquake, the rural settlements of Golcuk and Karamursel have
faced many unexpected pressures of physical, economic and natural sense. Although they
have not had as much destruction as Golcuk, Adapazari or other settlements in the
region, but they had to fulfil the needs of the people who were living in the disaster area.
In this paper, there are two main sections; firstly the situation of the rural settlements of
Golcuk and Karamursel after the disaster is presented and later the planning strategies
according to these realities is discussed.
1.  INTRODUCTION
In the last fifty years, the population dynamics faced in Turkey has been the result of
changes lived in economic sense. The structure of agriculture in Turkey has changed
from the limited production for  subsistence or local market to the specialised production
for the national or international market levels. The developed production technologies in
agriculture sector caused large amounts of migration from rural areas gradually while
increasing the productivity until 1980’s (Report of National Action Plan, 1996).
Undoubtedly, one of the main reasons of the migration movements from rural to urban
areas was the absence of the adequate employment opportunities in agriculture. The rate
of urban population has been increasing steadily and reached to 65% in 1997 Population
Census (SIS, 1997). According to the 1990 population census, the average population
increase rate was -5.56% in rural areas while it was 43.16% in urban and in  37 of 80
provinces, the population has been decreasing in rural sub-districts and villages (SIS,
1990). The age characteristic of the migrants shows that, mainly the active population
and the labour force have been moving (71%) from rural to urban areas. The regions
having better employment opportunities constitute population increase like in Marmara,
Aegean and Southeast Anatolian Regions; the rest Black Sea, Eastern Anatolia and Inner
Anatolia have population decrease in general.State Planning Organisation points out in the VIIth Five-Year Development Plan that,
the industrial and service sectors which will assimilate the increased population in urban
areas have not been developed sufficiently and the main reason of migration and
inadequate employment situation is caused by rural areas (SPO, 1997). The planning
strategies and decisions taken in the national level show that, unfortunately the
precautions to control migration and to decrease inequalities among different regions
remain below of the objectives and the national plan targets.
Another common situation in Turkey’s case is the urban settlers having agricultural land
in the countryside and investing more in urban area but at the same time continuing the
agricultural activity. Because of the income obtained by agriculture is not enough for
subsistence, families look forward better options in the environs of their actual lands.
Especially, the outskirts of major metropolitan settlements like Istanbul and Kocaeli
serve in this meaning to the rural population. According to a research which has been
done by Tarakli in Bolu province (adjacent to Sakarya and Kocaeli, in the earthquake
zone), the rate of urban settlers having agricultural land in countryside has increased to
2000% in between the years of 1966 and 1981. On the other hand, the rate of landless
farmers has decreased 40% in the same period of comparison (Tarakli, 1990).
Settlements in the southern part of Izmit Gulf  is very similar to the study area of
Tarakli’s research. In both cases, most of the settlements are defined as forest villages
and the rate of urban settlers having agricultural land in countryside is very high. These
characteristics created special impacts after the 17th August Kocaeli Earthquake.
On the other hand, the reverse direction of movement of population is getting more
important to be dealt with. In the case of Southeast Anatolian Project, the primary
objectives were to enhance the productivity of the rural land and to create new
employment opportunities (SAP Development Project, 1997). The impact of the project
is very obvious with the population increase rate in the region after it brought into alive,
and the rate is above the average rate of the country’s population increase.
Besides the new employment opportunities created in countryside, another type of the
reverse direction of population movement has been emerged by urban-originated families
who want to spent leisure time in these regions (like weekend houses) or to have a housein lower prices. But the uncontrolled planning applications may cause more damage on
natural and social environment of rural life together without integrating the existed
components.  As Allanson points out that, similar development occurs in Britain in recent
years and the outflow of labour from agriculture denudes villages from their working
force and replaces them by new inhabitants who work in urban areas. Therefore social
change in the rural area accompanies the upheavals in the nature of the agricultural
activity itself (Allanson et al, 1995). Decentralisation of the facilities through countryside
and creating the improved life-style opportunities have also caused new comers from
urban to rural areas.
These aspects related with rural environment in general will be a view point while
investigating the characteristics of rural settlements in the Kocaeli earthquake area. In
this study, rural settlements of Golcuk and Karamursel located on the south of Izmit
Gulf, is investigated to bring out the impacts of the earthquake in different ways (Figure
2).
 
2.  IMPACTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE AND GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT
THE REGION
North Anatolian Fault Zone starts from Karliova in East Anatolia, passes through the
Northern Anatolia and ends at the Northern Aegean Region (Figure 3). It has three
branches in Marmara Region. This system, which is named by Marmara Graben System,
takes place in the Marmara Sea and 15 km. far from the Istanbul. This situation shows
that, Istanbul Metropolitan Area will live with the reality of earthquake in the future as
like in the past experiences (Ural, 1999).
The impact of the Kocaeli and Bolu-Duzce earthquakes to the national economy has
been great. This is not only due to the cost of rebuilding, but also due more to the loss of
industrial production from the region. Approximately 20.000 people were killed and
more than 70% of the buildings heavily damaged and also collapsed (Tuysuz, Genc,
1999). Istanbul and Marmara Region,  the most populated and dense areas of Turkey
shows that, 24% of Turkey’s population lives in this region. Especially since 1980, local
and foreign industrial investments condensed in this region but not by taking into accountof sustainable urbanisation and development strategies. This region was the industrial
centre of the country, housing major factories, including the largest energy producing
establishments. Kocaeli region enjoyed the most educated workforce of Turkey and the
highest GNP per capita in Turkey in 1998. Therefore the rebuilding process is necessary
to start the motion of the industrial production, creating opportunities for lost jobs.
All planning of the new settlements must first consider minimising the risks for failure,
meaning maximising the safety of the people and buildings. Risk analysis studies need to
performed to reach decisions to predict the possible effects of disasters to the region.
This is the first step necessary in order to plan the process of recovery.
Because of the uneven geographical formation of the region, most of the urban
settlements and industrial developments on the south of Izmit Gulf and Sakarya are
located on agricultural land. Therefore the level of economic loss of the two latest
earthquakes were very severe caused by the characteristics of the land having unsecured
development for dense constructions.
2.  1. Impacts of the Earthquake on the Rural Settlements in Golcuk and
Karamursel
 
  Golcuk and Karamursel consist of 41 rural settlements. Most of these settlements are
located on uneven geographical land on the south of Izmit Gulf and the summits of
Samanli Mountains create border of their expansion (see Figure 2).
 
  It was natural that much of the investigations about the earthquake was on urban
settlements where most destruction and economic loss were faced. But also, other small
settlements where the primary needs of the sufferers were reimbursed at the beginning
have to be taken into account in the short and long-run of the planning process.
Therefore, this research has been prepared in the 18 of 41 rural settlements of Golcuk
and Karamursel Counties (44 %).
 
  Investigated 18 rural settlements are mainly forest villages (65 %) and they have not had
major physical damage after the earthquake. In three different cases, only three villageshave building destruction, demolishment of  minaret and heaping the wrekages on
agricultural land. In two cases, one of  the villages had dried-up spring and tent
pitchment. The most important impact has occurred sequentially after the earthquake
was migration through these settlements.  83 % of the investigated villages had
population increase right after the earthquake (see Table 1. and Table 2. and Graph  1.).
 
  Table 1. The Ratio of Major Impacts of the Earthquake on Physical and Social
Environments in the 18 Rural Settlements of Golcuk and Karamursel
IMPACTS %
Population increased 83
Houses demolished 17
Wrekages heaped on agricultural lands 17
Minaret of mosque demolished 17
People migrated outwards 5
Spring water dried-up 5
Tents pitched-up 5
  Table 2. Population Differences and Increase Rates of 18 Villages Before and After
Earthquake
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
BEFORE 234 300 541 550 380 328 400 99 191 231 350 565 348 135 780 123 523 497
AFTER 400 600 875 1500 2000 - 1200 250 285 760 370 3500 550 335 542 - - 750
INCREASE %) 71 100 62 172 426 - 200 152 49 229 6 519 58 148 -30 - - 51
 
  According to the information obtained by the deputy head of Degirmendere Municipality
(Sub-County of Golcuk), rural population and rural resources have reimbursed and
fulfilled  the primary needs of  victims of the disaster until the first-aids were received to
the area. The urban settlers having agricultural land in the area moved back, because of
the less risk to the earthquake. Thus, household numbers living in one unit rised up and
in some cases the increase were obtained up to 6 families.
 
  Nearly one year after the earthquake, these impacts are more settled down and the urban
settler population tended to move back to urban areas again when the government
policies to recover the losses were more clear and defined. However,  although the
reverse direction of population has been occurring in the area, it is obvious that these
rural settlements will burden the needs of people and the pressures of new developmentsbecause of having less risked land. Already, nearly 30% of the investigated villages have
secondary house (weekend houses) developments. This shows that the amount of new
constructions may rise up in future.  But unless these developments meet with regional
development plans and strategies which overlap with national planning system, the
sustainable rural environment and planning objectives will be questionable.
 
  Graph 1. Population Differences and Increase Rates of 18 Villages Before and After
Earthquake
 
-500
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
123456789 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8
Before After Increase (% )
 
2.  WHAT HAS BEEN DONE AND WHAT COULD BE?
 
In national level, Five Year Development Plans direct the basic strategies and define the
national development tendencies. Unfortunately the insufficiency of regional
development plans and strategies, the local development plans are generally in physical
terms and exclude rural land developments.  In national level, there has to be more
alternatives for rural planning decisions and strategies. There are very few rules and
inadequate laws for rural planning concept.  The Minister of Agriculture explained that
agricultural reform is very crucial and necessary. New agricultural reform is oriented to
direct the farmers and the planning of productions. According to this suggestion, the newinstitutional co-ordination and management will be leaded by Agricultural Support and
Orientation Committee under the authority of Ministry (Hurriyet, 1999; Sabah, 1999).
However this reform is far from to deal with general development problems in rural areas
and rural populations. As a result of the unaware planning policies related with rural
areas, other land uses (industrial, commercial, residential etc.) create encroachment on
the agricultural land and entice labour away from agriculture.
The general outlook of rural settlements in Golcuk and Karamursel is not differ from the
country’s case explained above.  The uneven formation of the land and the
encroachments of residential, industrial developments on 1st and 2nd grade qualified
agricultural land have brought out limited agricultural activities. More common farming
is orchards (hazelnut and fruit orchards). Because the most of the villages are in or
around the forests, another important activity is forestry. But these areas are under
pressure of new developments and there is not effective and directive control to
overcome unintended and unexpected developments. In developed countries, prosperous
farming industries has an efective role for preserving both rural landscape and rural
communities (Allanson et al, 1995; Lovejoy, ?)
Especially after the Kocaeli Earthquake, rural areas of Golcuk and Karamursel have been
under pressures of new developments for mainly residential and other uses in three ways.
Firstly from Government application for homeless people. Secondly, private developers
projects and the last is individual applications. Unfortunately none of these has been
implemented without regarding to regional impacts to the area. It is obvious that general
development strategies for the area have to be defined before developments occur for
controlling the unexpected results and achieving sustainable rural development.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The first author would like to thank the students of the “Rural Areas Planning” course
given in the 1999-2000 winter term, for their willingness to contribute to the research
done in rural settlements of  the disaster area. Without their support and volunteer effort,
this research would not be completed in this content.REFERENCES
1.  Allanson, P., Murdoch, J., Garrod, G., Lowe, P. (1995), “Sustainability and the
Rural Economy: an Evolutionary Perspective”, Environment and Planning-A, vol.27,
pp. 1797-1814.
2.  Hurriyet (Newspaper) (1999), Product Insurance Era Starts in Agriculture, 27
December, 1999, pp.11 (in Turkish).
3.  Lovejoy, D. (......), Land Use and Landscape Planning.
 
4.  Report of National Action Plan (1996), United Nations Human Settlements
Conference, HABITAT II, City Summit, Istanbul, Turkey.
5.  Sabah (Newsletter) (1999), EU Standards in Agriculture, 28 December, 1999,
Economy Page (in Turkish).
6.  SAP (Southeast Anatolian Project) (1997), SAP Sustainable Development
Programme, UNDP, TC, Prime Minister Office, Head of SAP Regional
Development Division (in Turkish).
7.  SIS (State Institute of Statistics) (1990), Population Census Results, Ankara, Turkey
(in Turkish).
8.  SIS (State Institute of Statistics) (1997), Population Census Results, Ankara, Turkey
(in Turkish).
9.  SPO (State Planning Organisation) (1997), VIIth Five-Year Development Plan
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10. Tarakli, D. (1990), Our Forests and Settlements, ODTU, Ankara, Turkey (in
Turkish).
11. Tuysuz, O., Genc, C.S. (1999), “Tectonic Features of the Surface Rupture of
August 17, 1999 Earthquake and Its Effects on the Engineering Structures”, ITU-
IAHS International Conference on the Kocaeli Earthquake, Scientific Assessments
and Recommendations for Re-building, 2-5 December, ITU, Istanbul, Turkey.12. Ural, O. (1999), “What Went Wrong?”, ITU-IAHS International Conference on the
Kocaeli Earthquake, Scientific Assessments and Recommendations for Re-building,
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Anatolian Project

Our Forests and Settlements,

Planning Organisation

Population Census Results,

Product Insurance Era Starts in

Sustainability and the Rural Economy: an Evolutionary Perspective”,

Tectonic Features of the Surface Rupture of August 17,

IMPACTS OF 17TH AUGUST KOCAELI EARTHQUAKE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS

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IMPACTS OF 17TH AUGUST KOCAELI EARTHQUAKE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS

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