Contribution of Çankırı Karatekin University to the Training Seminar for Civil Administrators within the Scope of "Experience Sharing Project in a Disaster Resistant Society"

Within the scope of the "Experience Sharing Project in Disaster Resilient Society", which is carried out in cooperation with the Education Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), an in-service training seminar was organized for civil administrators between 11 and 15 May 2026.

Çankırı Karatekin University, Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forestry Construction and Transportation, faculty member Prof. attended the seminar. Dr. Ender Buğday made a scientific contribution with his conference titled "Forest Fire, Climate Change and Landslide Risk Management". The conference consists of three main parts; Within the scope of Forest Fire Prevention and Risk Reduction; In the first part, it is emphasized that climate change has transformed the fire regime and that there are more forest fires on average annually in Turkey; Fire risk mapping, controlled burning, lane opening, meteorological early warning systems (MEUS, MODIS/VIIRS, UAV) and multi-actor institutional coordination framework were discussed. The 2021 Muğla–Antalya fires were examined as a case study; Scientific findings have shown that the early evacuation decision is a critical variable that directly affects the loss of life. In the second part, within the scope of Forest Management Adaptive to Climate Change; The risks (species distribution shifts, drought stress, loss of productivity) to Türkiye's forests due to the expected warming in the Mediterranean basin and the decrease in summer precipitation were evaluated. The principles of adaptive forest management, the contribution of the transition from monoculture to mixed forests to resilience, remote sensing and digital monitoring tools (Sentinel-2, LiDAR, UAV, Google Earth Engine) and transferable good practice examples from Japan, Spain and Portugal were shared. In the last section, within the scope of Landslide Risk Reduction Studies; It has been stated that 46% of natural disasters in Turkey are caused by landslides and 66 provinces are at risk of landslides. Machine learning-based susceptibility mapping methods, protective mechanisms provided by the forest cover through its root system, precipitation threshold-based early warning systems and engineering measures are explained from the perspective of civil administration. The critical importance of early warning and evacuation protocols was discussed through the 2021 Giresun Dereli disaster case study.

The conference was concluded with the emphasis that forest fire, climate change and landslide risk should be considered as an interacting whole, not independently of each other; An integrated disaster management action framework has been presented for local authorities.