Evaluating İstanbul’s disaster resilience capacity by data envelopment analysis

Abstract

Istanbul is one of the most important commercial, cultural, industrial, and educational centers in the world. However, Istanbul is also an earthquake-prone city, and it has experienced many of them throughout history. It is likely to be threatened by a huge, destructive earthquake in the next few years. In this study, the earthquake resilience capacity of Istanbul and her districts is evaluated by data envelopment analysis (DEA) models and returns to scale analysis. The efficient and inefficient districts are determined and discussed, for possible improvements of inefficient units in input and output values. The classification of Istanbul’s districts is applied according to vulnerabilities representing the potential losses from casualties, damage, destruction, and/or business interruption in a possible earthquake by DEA and returns to scale analysis.