Earthquake Early Warning & Seismic Monitoring Network

In the seconds before strong shaking, the network can halt trains in the Marmaray tunnel and shut off the gas. A university observatory built and runs it, not the city: roughly 110 accelerographs since 2001.

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Straddling the North Anatolian Fault, Istanbul runs one of the world's densest urban seismic layers. Since 2001 the Istanbul Earthquake Rapid Response and Early Warning System — built and operated by Boğaziçi University's Kandilli Observatory (KOERI), not the city — links roughly 110 strong-motion accelerographs across the Marmara region; it can automatically halt the Marmaray rail tunnel and shut off the gas network in the seconds before strong shaking, and generates post-quake damage maps from the building inventory. Structural-health sensors monitor major spans and tunnels, while the Metropolitan Municipality's AKOM center coordinates disaster response. The network functioned as designed in the April 2025 magnitude-6.2 offshore quake.