Main discussion was focused on importance of investing in risk reduction measures and preparing our cities and society against disasters at the 25th Round Table Meeting of METU-DMC on May 2nd, 2023. 

At the 25th Round Table Meeting of the Disaster Management Implementation and Research Center (DMC), Middle East Technical University (METU), Türkiye, experts and scholars gathered to discuss measures to be taken against disasters such as earthquakes, floods and avalanches. DMC was established in November 1997 under the UNDP cost-sharing project "Improvement of Turkey's Disaster Management System". Since its creation, the center has provided consultancy and project support to national and international institutions, with a multidisciplinary approach to disaster mitigation and management. The Annual Round Table meetings have served as an information exchange and knowledge sharing platform for the principal actors of disaster risk mitigation and risk management in Türkiye.

The 25th Round Table Meeting which was billed to take place in February had to be postponed due to the 6 February Earthquakes that occurred in Pazarcik district in the city of Kahramanmaras. The earthquake was also strongly felt by many surrounding cities such as Hatay, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Malatya, Adana, Adıyaman, and Kilis. The Round Table Meeting held at the University’s Culture and Congress Center, and it was well attended. The event hosted experts, representatives and stakeholders from public institutions, and academics from different parts of the country. At the meeting, disaster risks were analyzed by psycho-social experts, engineers, urban planners, city managers, and street-level bureaucrats to mention only a few.

The Director of the Disaster Management Implementation and Research Center and Faculty Member of the Department of City and Regional Planning, Assoc. Prof. Meltem Şenol Balaban remarked that since 1998, DMC have held annual meetings to discuss disaster risk management in the country. Reechoing the suggestions and recommendations shared at the meeting, Balaban stressed that, now more than ever, practical measures must be taken against disasters such as earthquakes, floods and avalanches.

Balaban emphasized that the fight against disasters should be taken with multi-disciplinary approach and said: "The earthquakes that took place on February 6 deeply hurt and saddened us all. These earthquakes caused destruction in a wide area and many lives were lost. We must fight against experiencing a devastation of that scale (or any scale for that matter) as we saw in the February 6 earthquakes, where there were massive simultaneous destructions. In other words, it is expedient that we invest in risk reduction measures and prepare our cities and society against this. If we are able to do this, our intervention forces will not have a hard time keeping up with disaster rescue, relief and recovery efforts like we witnessed after the February 6 earthquake. For this to happen, as stakeholders we must work together and put such preventive measures into practice to save more lives.”