Historical Development

Gazi University Earthquake Engineering Application and Research Center (DEMAR) was established as a center affiliated to the Gazi University Rectorate, with the regulation that was prepared in accordance with Article 7/d-2 of the Higher Education Law No. 2547 and entered into force by being published in the Official Gazette dated April 22, 2005 and numbered 25794.

Earthquake Engineering Application and Research Center is located in the campus of the Engineering Faculty of our University in Maltepe, and our center serves on the first floor of the faculty members' block. Our center has 29 weak and strong ground motion measurement stations located in and around the city of Ankara. The studies for the establishment of these stations were started in 2007 with the project of Establishment of Weak and Strong Ground Motion Recording Network of Ankara Region (ANKARA-NET), which was carried out within the framework of the Scientific Research Project of Gazi University. The studies, which started with 10 stations in 2007, have been brought up to date by strengthening and expanding the influence area of ​​the stations regionally. From these stations, data is transferred to our “Data-Processing” center 24/7, and this data about earthquakes is made with the computer infrastructure in our center, format conversion, evaluation, archiving and data distribution. In this way, determining the soil-structure interaction in Ankara and its surroundings, especially in new residential areas (measuring the effects of the dynamic ground acceleration on the soils during the earthquake, determining the forces that can cause damage to all types of structures in the light of the data to be obtained from this, and developing earthquake-resistant building design techniques with the data obtained here. The aim of this study is to closely monitor and update the earthquake activity in Ankara and its surroundings (by determining earthquake parameters such as earthquake location, magnitude and depth, and to examine the seismicity of Ankara and its vicinity in detail. With this study, the characteristic features (type, length) of the faults in Ankara and its vicinity Additional information will be provided to scientists who are working on determining the earthquake potential of active faults, depth, recurrence time, the largest earthquake size that it has created in the past and can create in the future.

There are a total of 6 rooms belonging to our center in the Faculty of Engineering Faculty Members block. These rooms consist of the earthquake and data processing room, the working rooms of the personnel, and the rooms of the center manager. Using the advantages of being in the faculty of engineering, our center can benefit from all the facilities, meeting rooms, laboratories and classrooms of the Civil Engineering Department and the Dean's Office in the Faculty of Engineering, when necessary, in the research and applied studies it carries out.

As in all other research and application centers, our center continues its studies and activities directly under our Rector. Regarding the research and application studies to be carried out, the approval of our Rectorate is obtained and if it is deemed appropriate, the studies are started and the necessary financial expenditures are made after the approval of our Rectorate. The activities carried out in our center are carried out under the chairmanship of our center director, together with his staff. With the help of the central board of directors, study and research programs are carried out and the working principles related to the fields of activity are determined. When needed, support is obtained from the members of the Advisory Board. In addition, the deputy center director supports the center director in all kinds of work.