Host Timo Balz welcomes Professor Çiler Çilingiroğlu (Ege University) and Associate Professor Dr. Nusret Demir (Akdeniz University), winners of the 2026 European Heritage/Europa Nostra Award (Citizens Engagement and Awareness) for assessing earthquake damage to cultural heritage sites after the February 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes. Çelik describes initial grief and communication blackouts, then launching a social media call for volunteers to document damage; Demir proposed using radar satellite (SAR) remote sensing. About 50 remote volunteers organized via Instagram and WhatsApp built a new georeferenced database from scratch, covering about 1,500 sites across provinces. International networks supplied open and commercial SAR and related products, enabling rapid, bureaucracy-free work that also supported infrastructure and public offices.

You can find their results under: https://culturalheritagetreq.netlify.app/

00:00 Welcome and Guests

01:40 Earthquake Shock and Loss

03:16 Launching the Volunteer Call

05:44 Remote Sensing Joins In

07:31 Organizing on WhatsApp

10:04 Getting Satellite Data Fast

11:50 Why SAR Works Best

13:06 Zero Budget Big Impact

15:54 Unexpected Award Recognition

17:43 Skepticism and Academia Response

20:20 Citizen Science Future

21:20 Where to Find the Project

21:46 Closing Thanks and Wrap Up