Çiğdem Varol Özden (p), N. Aydan Sat, Elif Varol Muratçay, Emrah Söylemez, Nazlı Tunar Özcan

Rachida El Morabet

Human mobility, especially in natural disasters (earthquake, landslide, rockfall, tsunami, volcanoes, flood, etc.) and in man-made disasters (nuclear explosion, oil spill, toxic waste), differs from its normal routine and creates chaos environments with different uncertainties. This unpredictable mobility situation also makes it difficult to respond to emergencies in a timely manner. Considering the earthquake in particular, it is known that human movements that develop in response to the stimuli that have emerged since the earthquake, combined with other movements that will occur within the framework of cooperation and coordination, create a mobility anomaly at the urban and regional level.
Therefore, being able to predict behavioural patterns for the mobility of individuals in emergencies such as earthquakes is important in reducing vulnerabilities. According to the studies conducted on the subject, the patterns of actions and behaviours aimed at reducing risks during and after a disaster vary greatly according to personal characteristics and conditions. Socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, number of children and education level are associated with disaster preparedness. On the other hand, some features that give clues about the economic structure, such as income level and housing ownership, seem to affect the preparations for disaster risk reduction. Another psychological factor that can significantly affect behaviour and response actions during and after disasters is the “disaster experience”.
From this point of view, the aim of the study is to figure out the relationship between human mobility patterns in earthquakes and socio-economic characteristics of individuals. For this aim, the earthquake that took place in the Aegean Sea off the Samos Island on October 30, 2020 and caused destruction in İzmir province is selected as a case study and a household survey was conducted with 385 earthquake survivors. The results of the study show that the mobility behaviour may vary according to individual characteristics. Based on the data obtained, it is understood that such studies should be used for support purposes in order to manage the risk in future disasters and to prepare the government and local governments for disasters.