Two major earthquakes of 7.7 and 7.6 magnitudes hit a large region of east south of Türkiye on the same day. The first 7.7 MW earthquake occurred in Pazarcık, Kahramanmaraş on the 6th of Feb 2023 followed by an earthquake of 7.6 MW in Elbistan, Kahramanmaraş after 9 hours. Thousands of buildings collapsed in ten provinces in Türkiye and caused thousands of life losses and injuries. More than 14 million people were affected, and a lot of people lost their homes which makes the two major events the worst natural disaster of the century. This paper presents site observations on the seismic performance of the buildings in Hatay province that is the most affected city by these earthquakes. Site observations indicate that most of the collapsed buildings are old building stocks constructed before 1999 and collapsed in a pancake failure mode which increases life losses. In general, newly constructed buildings that were designed according to the new Turkish earthquake design code show good seismic performance. Reasons for failures and failure modes of old and new buildings were investigated.

Accurate prediction of peak outflows from breached embankment dams is a key parameter in dam risk assessment. In this study, efficient models were developed to predict peak breach outflows utilizing artificial neural network and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). Historical data from 93 embankment dam failures were used to train and evaluate the applicability of these models. Two scenarios were applied with each model by either considering the whole data set without classification or classifying the set into small dams (48 dams) and large dams (45 dams). In this way, nine models were developed and their results were compared to each other and to the results of the best available regression equations and recent gene expression programming. Among the different models, the ANFIS model of the first scenario exhibited better performance based on its higher efficiency (E = 0.98), higher coefficient of determination (R² = 0.98) and lower mean absolute error (MAE = 840.9). Moreover, models based on classified data enhanced the prediction of peak outflows particularly for small dams. Finally, this study indicated the potential of the developed ANFIS and ANN models to be used as predictive tools of peak outflow rates of embankment dams.

Space syntax, the analytical tool of this study, is a set of techniques for representation and quantification of spatial patterns of buildings. In this paper quantitative analysis is performed in order to observe the relationship between privacy as cultural specific and the spatial configuration of the settlement in the city of Ghadames.The analysis is conducted on two levels of detail. Level of the whole Ghadames including three unconventional axial maps representing ground floor (male domain), upper floor (female domain), and the whole spatial system with entrances of buildings embedded. The second level of analysis covers nine sites representing three different cultural communities within Ghadames( Arab, Barbar and Tuarg). These community areas are analyzed as embedded within the city (embedded model) and as separated (cut out model).Analysis results indicate that ground floor (male domain) seems to be more locally and globally integrated than that of upper floor (female domain). Moreover, spaces of ground floor are more visually connected than the upper floor, which reveals that greater possibility in route choice for the users of ground floor. Their movement from one place to another is less restricted than that of the female in upper floor. Furthermore the results show that mechanisms are the physical elements that facilitate or impede privacy regulation in the city and/or enable users themselves to regulate privacy through their own locales.

Fire damaged reinforced concrete buildings are often made usable by performing non-structural and cosmetic repairs. These types of repairs do not guarantee the safety of such buildings under the effect of future lateral loads such as earthquakes. In this paper, an evaluation of the lateral load response of a RC fire damaged - building in Libya is presented. The building was used as a courtyard for the public and the fire visibly damaged some of its columns and beams. Material tests were conducted in situ and in the laboratory to evaluate the material strength of the building after fire. Then lateral load carrying capacity of the building before and after the fire was evaluated. Analysis results show that up to one hour fire duration the building does not lose a considerable amount of its lateral strength, however, at about two and half hours fire duration it lost about 30 percent of its lateral load carrying capacity. Lastly, analytically predicted residual strength material properties are in good agreement with material test results.

Preservation of historical buildings is an important issue to save our cultural heritage is both a record of life and history .In recent years the Turkish government starts urban transformation projects that include renewal and restoration of some historical buildings belongs to the Ottoman period. This paper present the details of a restoration project of a historical building in Istanbul. The selected restoration and strengthening technique aims to save the original architectural fabric of the building that has been changed among the last decades. The building is used as a chest diseases clinic in Istanbul University hospital. The building was built at the late-Ottoman period and composed of four building blocks. The structural system of the buildings is mainly unreinforced masonry URM walls. Seismic performance analysis results of the building before and after the proposed restoration scheme indicate that the resorted building is able to withstand future earthquakes safely.

In recent years, regional wars and terror activities have caused blast-loading effects on reinforced concrete buildings, resulting in catastrophic human and material damage. When a building is exposed to a blast load, a very high air pressure affects the building within a very short duration. To decide on the reconstruction or retrofit of a building exposed to blast loading, the behavior of the building under blast loading should be investigated. In this paper a case study of a RC building exposed to blast loading during the Libyan war in the last years was investigated. Nonlinear analysis results indicate that the failure mode is localized and that most structural elements remain elastic after explosions. The paper presents, building description details, material tests, finite element model and nonlinear analysis results.