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The purpose of this research is to show significant points which can be used in the architectural design process by investigating the basic principles of earthquake resistant design (ERD) in a deductive format and to contribute to the architectural perception in ERD.

First, the structural irregularity types are examined depending on the rules defined in the Turkish Earthquake Code, 2007 (TEC). Then, architectural design failures related to earthquake resistance of buildings under earthquake loading are visualized and solution suggestions in literature are described in detail by supported drawings.

The problems causing structural irregularities are investigated deeply with given solutions in literature. It is obtained that the significant factors affecting the earthquake performance of structures are: architectural form, structural configuration, slenderness ratio, the location and rate of floor openings, projection rates and symmetry, rigidity and strength differences between floors, short columns, pounding effect. Social implications – The practical design decision rules can contribute to the phenomena of earthquake resistant architectural design and can encourage adoption of these rules in building industry.

This study aims to gain an understanding of the problems in projects in terms of structural irregularities, and then manage to solve the problems using problem‐oriented approaches. The suggested solutions can be adopted and applied to future projects for designing earthquake resistant buildings.

School buildings have suffered disproportionate damage during past and recent earthquakes. For example, during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, many school buildings collapsed, resulting in loss of life. School buildings in many other parts of the world are also susceptible to this type of widespread damage because of inadequate design, detailing, or poor construction quality. The purpose of this paper is to show how these fatal flaws can be mitigated prior to future catastrophe by using good engineering practice to retrofit vulnerable schools.

Conventional and innovative, cost‐effective, and reliable tools are available to prevent damage to schools. It is often necessary to examine a group of buildings or all structures in a locality and develop a comprehensive risk management plan for the vulnerable buildings. As an example, a comprehensive evaluation and retrofit project, under the auspices of the World Bank, is currently under way in Istanbul, Turkey, to address vulnerable school and hospital buildings as discussed in the paper. As part of this effort in Turkey, a guideline that relies on state‐of‐the‐art evaluation and retrofit methods has been developed to assist the local engineers.

Implementation of the program based on the uniform standards developed in the retrofit guidelines, has significantly reduced the seismic risk to schools in Istanbul.

The proposed evaluation and implementation technique can be utilized by governments worldwide to prevent further damage to key infrastructure and save millions of lives.

Innovative retrofits can be used to provide enhanced performance and provide seismic resiliency for cluster of school buildings.

The purpose of this study, is to deals with capacity design (strong column – weak beam) in reinforced concrete frames, slightly slender, which depends on the determination of a capacity ratio necessary to reach a structural plastic mechanism. To find the capacity ratio allowing to achieve a fairly ductile behavior in reinforced concrete frames, it is necessary to validate this concept by a non-linear static analysis (push-over). However, this analysis is carried out by the use of the ETABS software, and by the introduction into the beams and columns of plastic hinges according to FEMA-356 code.

This approach makes it possible to assess seismic performance, which facilitates the establishment of a system for detecting the plasticization mechanisms of structures. It is also necessary to use a probabilistic method allowing to treat the dimensioning by the identification of the most probable mechanisms and to take only those that contribute the most to the probability of global failure of the structural system.

In this study, three reinforced concrete frame buildings with different numbers of floors were analyzed by varying the capacity ratio of the elements. The results obtained indicate that it is strongly recommended to increase the ratio of the resistant moments of the columns on those of the beams for the Algerian seismic regulation (RPA code), knowing that the frameworks in reinforced concrete are widespread in the country.

The main interest of this paper is to criticize the resistance condition required by RPA code, which must be the subject of particular attention to reach a mechanism of favorable collapse. This study recommends, on the basis of a reliability analysis, the use of a capacity dimensioning ratio greater than or equal to two, making it possible to have a sufficiently low probability of failure to ensure a level of security for users.

The aim of this study is to question the relationship between architectural ethical codes and faults in earthquakes. Earthquakes have devastating effects on all societies in history and today. And the relationship and importance of the architect and building, one of the most important roles of these destructive effects, is once again revealed in every earthquake. Although there are some restrictions or warnings for architects and the architectural profession to reduce this destructive effect in many regulations and ethical codes, it is possible to see the defects caused by architectural design and the destruction caused by these defects in every new earthquake.

In this study, the most destructive earthquakes in Turkey in the past 20 years (Bingöl, Van, Elazig and Izmir) and the 1999 Marmara earthquake, which was the most destructive earthquake in Turkey’s recent history, and the damages occurred in these earthquakes and their causes were examined. Although the scope of the study is “destructive earthquakes that have occurred in the past 20 years in Turkey”, the Marmara Earthquake, which occurred in 1999, when the destructive effect of the earthquake was seen the most and architectural design errors were intense, was also included in the scope of the study. And to have a more comprehensive understanding of how these defects are examined in terms of ethical codes and to make a more comprehensive comparison, ethical codes from different countries in the world have been researched and a review has been made on topics such as public welfare, human rights and raising the standard of the profession.

This study concludes by reviewing the key factors learned from the examined ethical codes of different countries. Finding ethical codes of different countries was challenging to gain approval. In addition, the study ends with recommendations in terms of questioning the regulations and education curriculum relations on a country basis.

This study, which targets architect candidates who carry out the profession of architecture and continue their architectural education, evaluates the architectural design flaws seen in earthquakes through ethical codes and forms a basis for further studies.

The main aim of this paper is to explore the elementary school principles’ experiences and reactions toward two earthquakes, which hit the north‐west region of Turkey on August 17 and November 12, 1999.

A qualitative methodology was used since the goal of the researcher was to delineate the experiences and reactions of school principals in such an unexpected natural disaster. Data included interview and official documents and was analyzed through content analysis.

The findings indicated that school principals considered earthquakes to be an unexpected phenomenon. Second, while school principals considered earthquakes as a negative experience in the short term, they considered it a positive experience in the long term. Third, they felt the earlier regulations prepared by the Board of Education for natural disasters, such as for earthquakes, were not adequate. Finally, school principals lived through mixed emotions between their professional careers and their families.

School principals’ experience may inform future policy, practice and research about school leaders.

The lessons learned from this article should be helpful, not only to schools and other educational departments, but also to other organisations in Turkey.

Crisis management has gained importance in the policy agendas of many countries around the world due to the increases in the number of natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Thus, this paper has two purposes. The first is to illustrate how the Turkish Government's Disaster and Crisis Management System has been developed. The second purpose is to make a qualitative evaluation of the current disaster and crisis management systems.

Literature review shows that the disaster and crisis management system in Turkey has been developed after tragic events. The paper examines what kinds of initiatives were introduced and what is the trend in shift. After analyzing recent cases and exploring some government initiatives, alternative approaches and suggestions were included.

Turkey has developed its disaster and crisis management system since 1930, which mostly depended on experiences. The current disaster and crisis management system is governed by a centralized structure which is the responsibility of different ministries. Nonetheless, the system is very weak at local level. Furthermore, participation of non‐profit organizations is very limited at both national and local levels. Thus, coordination and management of first‐response operations during crises are problematic and ineffective. Particularly, the system is not designed for different types of crises such as terrorist attacks.

Crisis management in Turkey needs a more unified and flexible structure to deal with current problems effectively. Further suggestions for better implication are also provided

The effectiveness of the disaster and crisis management system is analyzed in natural and man‐made disasters. Findings show that centralized and decentralized systems have different functions in different situations.

Two major earthquakes which struck Northwestern Turkey in 1999 exposed rampant corruption involving construction and zoning code violations. The government’s relief efforts were tainted by corruption as well, and exhibited a great deal of incompetence. How voters responded to these in the next election held in 2002 is investigated. The fact that different group of parties were responsible for the construction of the shoddy buildings, and for the corruption and mismanagement related to relief, provided us with a unique opportunity to determine whether and how the electorate punished the culprits for each of these. The purpose of this paper is to shed light also on the new party system which emerged in Turkey after 2002.

Vote equations are estimated for the seven major political parties. These are fitted to cross-provincial data individually, using ordinary least squares and robust regression methods, and as a system, using seemingly unrelated regressions procedures. The same picture emerges from each of these methods.

Not just those ruling at the time of the earthquakes, but also other parties which were in power when the substandard buildings, were built were held accountable by the electorate. Furthermore, the Turkish voters appear to have allocated the blame rationally, taking into consideration the division of labor in the central government, and the relative influences the parties had on local administrations. Reaction of the voters to government incompetence and corruption was one of the factors which resulted in the emergence of a new party system. In 2002, the AKP, established only a year before, captured almost all of the far-right Islamist, about half of the far-right nationalist, and more than half of the center-right votes in 2002.

Corruption usually makes little difference in the fortunes of politicians. Some recent studies suggest that it takes more than just exposure of corruption to get the voters to react. Politicians pay a significant price only when the corruption touches all political parties across the board, is not accompanied by good governance, and competent non-corrupt alternatives are available. The results provide support for this assertion from the natural experiment that has taken place in Turkey.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effects of earthquakes on libraries and educational institutions in the region of Azad Kashmir in Pakistan.

The paper is based on a review of the literature published in the newspapers, face‐to‐face and telephonic interviews and donor reports from the area. Inputs (people, knowledge, material, capital and finance), processes, outputs and feedback mechanism of libraries in Kashmir are described.

The barriers to implementing the strategies offered in this paper are essentially practical: resource constraints and related social or governmental factors. The paper suggests to strictly follow the building codes prescribed by the international standard bodies. The paper also suggests to strictly monitor the construction of the educational institutions and libraries and to control the corruption involved in contracting out the tenders, etc. This study attempts to highlight the importance of disaster management and training during such kind of disasters and preservation strategies for libraries.

The paper is useful not only to understand what strategies should be adopted during such kind of disasters but also to review the picture of the state of libraries and educational institutions post earthquake in Pakistan. The paper would be very useful to the Government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the policy makers in the education department while implementing the building codes, planning disaster management strategies and the library staff in the affected areas.

The purpose of this paper is to interpret Luhmann’s Social Systems Theory to discuss disaster resilience, and use its “functional method” for creating “local organizational inventories” to support the trend of integration in Turkey’s disaster management system. For this, the authors used a case study from Düzce province in 2013, investigating the organizational aftermath of two major earthquakes in 1999.

A purposive sample of local associations in city center of Düzce province was used. The local associations were selected according to the criteria if they organized any disaster-related activities after the 1999 earthquakes, despite being specialized in domains other than emergencies. Representatives of these organizations were interviewed about the content of their disaster-related activities and their organizational cooperation.

There was a lack of overlap between centralized emergency plans and local history of self-organized disaster activities. Both centralized and local organizations primarily engaged in activities that aim to reproduce their own systemic boundaries, rather than synchronizing central and local efforts in disaster planning.

The method used in this research helps discovering the local diversity of resources for improving resilience.

Arguing that disasters should be discussed under a theory of modern society, Robert A. Stallings refers to Luhmann’s theoretical work (Stallings, 1998, p. 134). Complexity plays a central role in emergencies in modern society. Therefore, the Luhmannian perspective needs to be incorporated into disaster studies to account for increasing social complexity and systemic differentiation. The problems resulting from functional differentiation and the relationship between different problem–solutions have their effects on emergency planning.