ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER Istanbul natural gas network rapid response and risk mitigation system Can Zulﬁkar 1 • Mustafa Erdik 2 • Erdal Safak 2 • Hikmet Biyikoglu 3 • Cagatay Kariptas 4 Received: 28 October 2015 / Accepted: 19 June 2016 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016 Abstract This paper describes a rapid response and risk mitigation system Istanbul Nat- ural Gas Distribution Network Seismic Risk Reduction Project (IGRAS) for the Istanbul Natural Gas Network (IGDAS¸ ). Upon the trigger signal received from the earthquake early warning system in Istanbul, the real-time algorithm at IGRAS system district regulators checks the threshold levels of ground-motion parameters and interrupts the gas ﬂow if any exceedance is detected. Then the system: (1) produces almost real-time earthquake hazard maps by using on-line strong-motion data from the strong-motion network in Istanbul: (2) estimates the distribution of damage to the natural gas network; and (3) transfers these damage distribution maps to stakeholders to enable dispatching rapid response teams to high damage areas. Keywords Earthquake early warning  Critical infrastructures  Earthquake rapid response  Earthquake shaking maps  Real-time damage assessment  Buried natural gas pipeline city network 1 Introduction Past large magnitude earthquakes showed that gas pipeline networks are exposed to sig- niﬁcant damages due to either wave passage or permanent deformations in urban areas. The damages to pipeline networks in past earthquakes were studied in the SYNER-G & Can Zulﬁkar canzulﬁkar@trakya.edu.tr 1 Civil Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey 2 Earthquake Engineering Department, Bogazici University, Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, C¸ engelko¨y, Istanbul, Turkey 3 IGDAS, Istanbul Gas Distribution Industry and Trade Incorporated Company, Istanbul, Turkey 4 GRM, Communication and Information, Istanbul, Turkey 123 Bull Earthquake Eng DOI 10.1007/s10518-016-9964-x