Importance of Location Selection in Regions with Disaster Risk: The Case of Ayancık Babacay Village

Abstract

Precautions to be taken before disaster are the most important activities that will ensure the safety of life and property in terms of reducing the damages that may be caused by disasters when disasters occur. One of the reasons for the natural events in Turkey to turn into disasters is the wrong location selection for settlements. This wrong location selection is not ordinary, and it becomes even more remarkable if it occurred during the state-sponsored resettlement.
 In this study, the importance of choosing the right place in the post-disaster resettlement studies was tried to be explained by starting from the example of Babacay Village in the Ayancık district of Sinop province. As a result of the landslide that occurred in the Sarnıc District of Babacay Village in 1985, many houses became unusable, but no loss of life was experienced. Citizens whose houses were destroyed after the disaster were settled in the new settlement area built by the state in Makas District of the same village. During the flood and overflow disaster that occurred on August 11, 2021, the new settlement area was severely damaged this time, and loss of life and property occurred. The reason for these losses and the resulting damages is the wrong place chosen for the disaster victims. However, the mistake did not end there, for our citizens who were damaged by the flood of August 11, 2021, a new settlement area was determined on the opposite slope of the old settlement. According to the results of the field studies and disaster-risk analyzes, the risk of landslide also in this new settlement area and the possible problems that may be encountered in the future are the subject of this research