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The articles in this special issue extend research on urban space and politics in Istanbul with approaches that explorate the relationships between urban form, urban change, and political processes as assemblages of things, beliefs, institutions, and landscapes. They share a commitment to extended ethnography and thick description in urban studies, and contribute to research that destabilizes universalizing urban theory produced in Europe and America. The dramatic state-led project of neoliberal urban transformation in Istanbul has generated an important body of work that focuses on the consequences of creative destruction, urban displacement, and urban social and political exclusion. These papers contribute to that research with additional questions that incorporate understudied material and cultural elements of the urban political economy. What role do material elements (concrete, plexiglass, signs, maps) play in the practices that propel urban dynamics: that justify, for example, the rebuilding of some properties and the destruction of others? How do the subjective dimensions of human life (memory, belief, emotion, art, suspicion, and imagination) propel particular forms of urban development? Istanbulites' theories of why, where, and to whom destruction or fortune happens – and of what particular material things mean, or what they're meant to be used for – are crucial elements of the total urban situation. Istanbulites' theories cohere disparate elements into assemblages which, in turn, work to transform the city's material realities and social worlds. These papers invite us, as scholars, to resituate our urban theories and to bring urban residents' theories into assemblage with our own. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces a methodology for characterizing the breadth of natural hazard types, hazard interrelationships, and risk scenarios in Global South urban areas, focusing on Nairobi, Kenya, and Istanbul, Türkiye. Our approach involves (a) a comprehensive characterization of multi‐hazards and their interrelationships in an urban setting, (b) collaborative development of relevant multi‐hazard scenarios with local disaster risk reduction (DRR) stakeholders, and (c) analysis of the potential for integrating these scenarios into urban DRR efforts. Using a critical review of 135 sources (academic and gray literature, databases, online, and social media), we identify 19 natural hazard types that might influence Nairobi and 23 in Istanbul. We further identified in Nairobi 88 and Istanbul 105 hazard interrelationship pairs (e.g., an earthquake triggering landslides) out of a possible 576 interrelationships. These findings are cataloged in an extensive database, which informs the creation of multi‐hazard risk scenario exemplars for each city. These exemplars are refined through stakeholder engagement, involving four workshops (47 participants) and nine semi‐structured interviews with local DRR stakeholders. Despite the identified benefits, this engagement reveals a significant gap in integrating multi‐hazards into current urban policy and practice. Governance challenges are highlighted as a key barrier, but opportunities for better integration are also identified, including evolving policies and growing awareness among urban actors. Our approach, particularly relevant in data‐scarce urban areas of low‐ and middle‐income countries, provides a framework for exploring multi‐hazard issues in various urban contexts. Plain Language Summary: Our study sought to understand the breadth of natural hazards an urban area in the Global South might face, how the hazards are interrelated (e.g., an earthquake can trigger landslides), and typical risk scenarios that matter to local experts. We applied our methodology to Nairobi and Istanbul to assess how considering multiple hazards could enhance disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts. We systematically reviewed 135 information sources, including gray and peer‐reviewed literature and online and social media. We found 19 natural hazard types could influence Nairobi, while Istanbul faces 23. These hazards showed numerous interactions, with 88 in Nairobi and 105 in Istanbul. Subsequently, we held workshops and interviews with local DRR stakeholders in both cities to co‐designed multi‐hazard risk scenarios. Practitioner stakeholders in Nairobi and Istanbul emphasized that considering these interrelationships helped create comprehensive risk scenarios and improved planning for addressing multiple hazards concurrently, a crucial aspect of urban safety and preparedness. They noted that current city policies and practices often overlooked this approach, primarily due to risk management and governance issues; for example, siloed approaches to DRR resulting in disjointed implementation and planning, and a lack of coordination and communication among actors. Our research framework may assist other urban areas, particularly those in developing countries with limited data, in comprehending and preparing for the complex challenges posed by various natural hazards. Key Points: Using Nairobi and Istanbul, we introduce a framework for analyzing multi‐hazard interrelationships in low‐ and medium‐income citiesA systematic review of 135 sources finds 19 and 23 hazard types and 88 and 105 hazard interrelationships in Nairobi and Istanbul, respectivelyWorkshops and interviews identify risk scenarios, governance challenges, and opportunities for multi‐hazard integration in urban policies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the last two decades, urban redevelopment practices in informal settlements in Turkey often neglected inhabitants' spatial practices. The contradictions between conceived and lived space constitutes reactions to these spatial interventions. Against this background, this paper examines the association between place attachment and residents' attitudes toward the redevelopment project in an informally developed neighborhood. Using path and decision tree analysis of survey data, the paper explores the relationship between their attitudes towards and their attachment to the neighborhood. Our findings reveal that individuals' social and physical bonds with their neighborhood shape their attitude toward urban redevelopment. As such, this study confirms the idea that daily interactions between residents reinforce their place attachment in informal settlements where place identity compensates for the (low) quality of life. Still, our findings also demonstrate that residents' identification with the place is a more influential factor, compared to the risk of leaving the neighborhood, on the level of concern against spatial interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of TESAM Academy Journal is the property of Tesam Academy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There is a vast literature that seeks to define and identify spatial submarkets in metropolitan housing systems. These tend to use one of three methods to delineate submarkets: a priori geographies, ad hoc subdivision and data-driven approaches to grouping units. Recently, analysts have increasingly used multilevel modelling strategies to analyse spatial segmentation in the housing market. Despite the increasing prevalence of multilevel approaches, there is no existing systematic analysis of which of these three main approaches to submarket definition has the greatest effectiveness when employed in a multilevel modelling framework. This paper addresses the gap in the literature by comparing the utility of these main approaches to submarket definition. It develops and evaluates three separate, distinct multilevel models of submarkets to a data set comprising 2175 transactions in the Istanbul housing market of Turkey, an emergent market context. The results show that multilevel models with a priori submarket dummy variable can predict price more accurately than the models with ad hoc subdivision or data-driven stratified submarkets. Similarly, test results indicate that multilevel models with neighbourhood submarket dummy variables (a priori) perform better than other models. These test results show that granular definition of submarkets tend to perform better in terms of predictive accuracy than less spatially granular models. The paper also suggests that real estate agents' views of submarket structures might be particularly useful as inputs into micro-modelling processes in contexts where datasets are thin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I discuss how the earthquake risk is exploited by 'disaster capitalism', in order to convert Istanbul to a massive construction site. The shock of the 1999 Marmara Earthquake has been effectively used by the neoliberal market and government as 'a shock therapy' to implement a construction‐led development model for Turkey and to favour the construction sector by introducing new incentives, exceptional rights and interventions, which otherwise might be challenged. The current Turkish government justify the ongoing massive urban transformation and new mass housing projects as an improvement of the housing stock to make residential buildings stronger and more resilient to earthquakes. However, areas actually under earthquake risk do not match the areas that are officially declared under disaster risk by the government. The Disaster Law #6306 that granted the government the absolute right to expropriate land based on the justification of 'protecting residents against earthquakes and other natural disasters' was applied in a selective way to seize valuable land in Istanbul. In the paper I explore how the disaster was quickly converted to an opportunity for economic growth. To do that I introduce stories of three different neighbourhoods in Istanbul, namely Moda, Tozkoparan and Fikirtepe, each of which experience the ongoing massive urban transformation differently based on the land value of the neighbourhoods, class position of the residents, and residents' capacity to organise in order to protect their rights. I describe, how disaster capitalism is lived and experienced differently in these three neighbourhoods. Although the massive construction projects are indifferent to life's sustainability, those projects are justified as interventions in terms of public health and safety through making housing resilient to earthquakes. I critically discuss how in each case biopolitics presents disaster capitalism's massive urban transformation projects as a manifestation of liveliness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Cat: it possesses beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity, all the virtues of man without his vices" (Lord Byron). This paper is a photographic summary of trips to three cities that we consider among the most representative of the harmonious relationship between humans and cats: Istanbul, Kotor, and Saint Petersburg. The photos show some of the beauty of these cities: architecture, avenues, museums, squares, parks, the natural beauty of the surroundings, and, of course, its community's cats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduced in the 2000s as a component of social welfare reforms, the means test determines the eligibility of aid applicants based on previously set income categories. Replacing local committees that decided eligibility, this centralized and digitalized screening process rests on information infrastructures that are mostly invisible. This paper argues that the ways in which applicants contest the outcome of the means test, subvert the eligibility requirements, and go around the screening processes, make visible these otherwise-mostly invisible information infrastructures. Through a discussion of the contestations, subversions, and go-arounds applicants use (not always successfully) to receive emergency food relief from municipal food banks in Istanbul, the paper shows that these information infrastructures not only appear as if they are value-neutral and apolitical, but in so doing, they also serve as useful tools for obscuring who the actual decision makers are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the age of socio-ecological crises in which we live, the urgency of understanding the complicated relationship between society and nature is apparent. To achieve this, unfolding the urban metabolism of cities through metabolic flows from the perspective of urban political ecology will grow increasingly essential in the future. This paper aims to explore the concept of urban political ecology as a perspective for understanding emergence of a new urban metabolism in İstanbul in the nineteenth century through metabolic flows of water. The context of "metabolic" emphasizes labor as an agent for the very production of nature as urbanized nature through tap water, waste, and sanitation. It shows the transition and the conflict between the labor-intensive urban metabolism and capital-intensive urban metabolism of İstanbul, which started in the nineteenth century. The metabolic flows of water in terms of infrastructure were affected by the first impacts of foreign capital investments and capitalist relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This abridged version of the Arabic original provides a comprehensive exploration of Shaykh Khalil al-Khalidi's life (1863/4-1941). Originating from a prestigious Jerusalem family, the narrative delves into his formative years, education at al-Aqsa, and extensive studies in Istanbul. The study examines his academic pursuits, including training in Hanafi jurisprudence and interactions with influential scholars. It further elucidates his diverse appointments in the Ottoman judiciary, detailing his travels to Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt. The inclusion of figures like Jamal al-Din al-Afghani adds depth to his intellectual journey. The narrative encompasses Shaykh Khalil's challenging period of unemployment, subsequent appointments, and notable roles in the Ottoman judiciary, concluding with his affiliation with the Committee of Union and Progress. Illustrations, including his ijaza and certification documents, enrich the historical narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ESTOA: Revista de la Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Universidad de Cuenca is the property of ESTOA Revista de la Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Universidad de Cuenca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Moment Journal: Journal of Cultural Studies is the property of Moment Journal: Journal of Cultural Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyses the high streets of Istanbul within the context of high street management through four dimensions of location and movement, physical fabric, real estate & land use and exchange, and suggests a comprehensive approach to manage these commercial axes. While analysing the chosen study areas of Istiklal Street, Bagdat Street and Nisantasi District under the given topics, this paper makes use of analyses regarding transportation network, footfall, commercial and non-commercial use, prime rental values, besides a literature review to have an understanding towards the nature of each case study area. The results imply that despite their differences, all three study areas face certain issues that point out the lack of comprehensive strategic approaches to their management. Towards the high streets of Istanbul, this paper proposes a management approach embracing three main goals: (1) to constitute a brand image, (2) to decrease the vulnerability against macroeconomic factors and (3) to maintain vitality and viability of these axes. To overcome the complexities regarding management issues, this paper suggests an organizational and institutional approach, dedicated to considering the interests of all users on high streets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bus arrival time prediction is a key factor in passenger satisfaction and bus usage. Bus arrival time information reduces both passenger anxiety and their waiting time at the bus stop. Therefore, giving passengers accurate bus arrival time information is very important in public transportation. Various time series prediction methods are used for bus arrival time in this paper. Moreover, five different performance measurements are considered to assess the accuracy of the prediction models. A case study is presented using real data from Istanbul, Turkey for the proposed models. The models predict bus arrival time on a route for its different segments. The results of the proposed models are compared according to performance measures. The model with the best accuracy result among the eight prediction models can support service operators and the authorities in obtaining better passenger satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

One of the world's mega cities, Istanbul, is changing drastically with the neoliberal and conservative policies transforming its public spaces and sociocultural fabric in contested ways. These changes require stimulating reflections on the formation of new public spheres. This paper approaches this problematic through a focus on the ways in which alternative cultural organizations in Beyoğlu - the cultural hub of Istanbul - create new forms of publicness. Drawing on a comprehensive empirical research, this paper argues for a solidary form of publicness developing in and through alternative cultural organizations of Istanbul via the circulation of cultural assets. This particular form stimulates thinking about publicness as circulation, going beyond the oversimplistic idea of the physical togetherness of people in one particular place. Instead, it aims to reconceptualize publicness through the solidarity relations of alternative cultural organizations and their micro public(s) and to observe the formation of multiple (counter) public spheres as an emergent infrastructure of circulation connecting different sites, people and media across cultural spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the ways in which mediating spaces like film festivals function as alternative public spheres when social movements escalate, arguing that the Istanbul International Film Festival and Documentarist right before, during and following the Gezi protests turned into politically and socially inclusive spaces for marginalised groups in Turkey. To account for how audiences and organisers aimed to transform these mediating spaces into socially inclusive and heterogeneous outlets during the Gezi protests, the paper relies on an audience ethnography in the sites of these film festivals from 2013 until 2017 including participant observation, go-alongs and in-depth interviews with audiences, film crews and organizers. Although the spaces of these two film festivals functioned differently, the article shows that film festival spaces generally transformed into cosmopolitan outlets in Istanbul in this period, opening room for a dialogue between marginalised and dominant groups, which was fed by social movements [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore safety and danger in gated communities in Turkey, an important subject of study in recent research in urban studies, conducted nationally and internationally. Safety has become a major concern in the last years, especially in large metropolises, leading people to move to gated communities which are thought to protect residents from urban problems. The paper uses the data collected during a fieldwork conducted in two gated communities in Istanbul. The main data is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with their residents and other participants providing first-hand information on two case studies. The paper also uses visual and statistical data provided by relevant administrative officers. The paper indicates that gated communities are not totally isolated and ready-made sites. Rather, it argues that they create a mixture of “traditional” and “ready-made” safety while they also lead to new forms of danger, all of which emerging from their different socio-spatial configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based mainly on original French archival sources, this paper discusses the conduct and extent of French military and civil activities in Ottoman Istanbul during the Crimean War. Using both qualitative and quantitative indicators, the paper shows how the necessities generated by the war, promoted an unprecedented growth in the French military and civil presence in Istanbul. Through this approach, the paper explains to what degree the war created new market opportunities for various French products and services, a favourable environment for the establishment of French hospitals, and also occasions for cultural encounters between the French and the Ottomans in Istanbul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studies in Ottoman Science / Osmanlı Bilimi Araştırmaları is the property of Studies in Ottoman Science / Osmanli Bilimi Arastirmalari and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study analyzes transformations in institutions of affordable housing production connected to neoliberalization, which have impacted affordability rates and income gaps in Copenhagen and Istanbul. Also, different types of affordable housing began to develop, such as modular housing of Almenbolig+ in Copenhagen and housing for very low-income people in Istanbul. Increased affordability rates are the results of the transformations of welfare state-based practices to market-based approaches. The aim of this paper is to analyze and compare how affordable housing institutions have transformed from being financed through public funds to private funding sources since the periods of financial crisis in 2001 and 2008 in a Western and non-Western country. Using the concept of neoliberal localization, this comparative case study employs variation finding tool to analyze the transformations under three causal mechanisms. The first mechanism is state withdrawal of providing finance to affordable housing production; second, collaboration with private sector for financing affordable housing while increasing authority of municipalities. The third mechanism is restructuring institutions to open a base for public-private partnerships. Primary data was provided from interviews, while secondary data was gathered from planning policies, legislations, OECD and country statistics. The outcome of this study reveals information about changes in affordable housing institutions and neoliberal effects on affordable housing production due to contributions of local governments contingent on requirements of private funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this opinion paper, I trace children's access to play in the urban context against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the news, civil society organizations' reports and conversations with experts working in Istanbul, Turkey during the last year, I show how children's access to public places in the city gets constrained by urban governance that neglects young people's needs. Examples from the neighborhoods of Istanbul, Turkey, indicate the importance of having in mind the whole community while thinking about bringing play opportunities in public spaces and at the same time raise questions about children's participation in these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water supply has been a chronic challenge in Istanbul since its foundation. Authorities have sought alternative methods since the Roman and Byzantine periods. Cisterns, channels and wells surveyed in urban heritage sites in Istanbul provide evidence of rainwater harvesting (RWH) as a working solution in the past. However, RWH systems have only been utilized in contemporary plans and policies very recently, particularly since the climate change crisis entered the political agenda in Turkey. Taking this as a point of departure, this paper investigates the challenges of widespread implementation of RWH systems in Istanbul through a participatory inquiry with water management actors. Challenges and needs are explored through a set of in-depth interviews and participatory workshops with representatives from water management institutions. The findings reveal that current challenges are related to planning and development, legislation and governance, financing, society, infrastructure, installation and operation of systems. The potential solution is the establishment of a governance mechanism that enables collective action among relevant actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key issues of the urban planning agenda is how urban density be decided in the spatial configurations of future neighbourhoods to overcome complex challenges such as urban warming. This paper aims to reconsider urban density as a spatial planning instrument to develop effective densification policies, planning and design strategies in terms of surface urban heat island (SUHI) mitigation in Istanbul. The quantitative research embraced a four-stage methodology including grid-based sampling design, decoding the taxonomy of urban density-matrix (UDM), land surface temperature mapping, and ANOVA tests. Tests were conducted on the UDM consisting of nine building typologies representing the horizontal and vertical urban density. The research indicated that the impact of urbanisation on SUHI can be mitigated by controlling densities and urban forms based on quantitative findings. The highest temperatures were recorded in areas with high-coverage-mid-rise and mid-coverage-mid-rise development. The different levels of SUHI in different building typologies having the same density indicated the mitigation potentials of the built-form in Istanbul's local urban warming. Low coverage and high-rise building forms were an optimal solution for mitigating SUHI in densely populated urban areas. The research gives insight into an ongoing debate among urban professionals in Istanbul concerning the impacts of density and the urban form for climate adaptation. It enables professionals to understand the impact of urban planning decisions on microclimate and integrate them into the operational processes. Considering quantitative research findings as a strong foundation for developing policy recommendations and using them as a guideline may create new opportunities for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. The study has an original value for exploring design strategies to improve microclimate and promoting sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I tackle the center-periphery dynamics under planetary urbanization by focusing on Gebze, the gigantic industrial city just outside of Istanbul's administrative borders. Through an empirical study of peripheral urbanization processes in the Gebze-Istanbul axis, the paper engages with the planetary sub/urbanization debates and serves the triple purpose: (I) to emphasize the significance of peripheralization and the center-periphery dialectics to critique the predominant emphasis on centrality in urban and regional research which relegates the socio-spatial and political transformations of the peripheries to the background, (II) to offer an alternative approach to depictions of cities as sentient, anthropomorphic actors in a hierarchical and competitive Darwinian ecology, and (III) to contribute to planetary sub/urbanization debates by zooming in on some of the micro-spaces of peripheral Gebze during the extended urbanization process in greater Istanbul. Through a transdisciplinary methodology, the paper provides a local ontology by displaying how peripherality is constructed not merely from above and the center by the state or economic actors, but also by the people from below and the periphery, as it were, during their everyday rhythms, activities, negotiations, and coping. By resisting the merely expanded application of the term suburban, and instead taking seriously the complex web of governance, agency, defeat, organization, and exploitation within the lives of Gebze's inhabitants, the article concludes that such phenomena make any universalizing claim about the urban or the suburban incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1999, two devastating earthquakes occurred in Northwestern Turkey, which claimed around 18,000 lives. Since the disaster, many scientific studies and projects, both international and national, have been conducted, concluding that another earthquake at the magnitude of at least six will hit Istanbul. Even though there is a consensus among scientists that an earthquake will happen in Istanbul, there is a plethora of different theories and arguments about the anticipated earthquake. This paper is an historical account of how different technoscientific practices have enacted different North Anatolian Faults stretching across Anatolia and Marmara Sea. The multiplicity of the fault does not emerge as an epistemic problem of having different perspectives, but it is an ontological question of how plural realities are being made in different scientific practices. We argue that scientific uncertainties emerge when these different faults do not fit together in technoscientific circles and across public venues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on struggles for land by ordinary people in globalizing cities. By drawing on three cases in Istanbul, it explores the circumstances under which these struggles can be successful. It analyses the evolution of the self-built settlements of Ayazma, Yakacık and Hürriyet and their varied outcomes, from legalization to razing. Three conditions seem to explain why land titling was obtained in Yakacık and proved impossible elsewhere. One is specific to land ownership. The second reason revolves around the mediating role and political commitment of a district municipality, primarily through the engagement of one of its decision-makers in favour of poor residents. The third reason relates to the nature and form of Yakacık residents' mobilization and organizations. All of these conditions are essential; none is sufficient individually. The difficulty of bringing all these conditions together at one time and in one place explains the exceptional nature of the case in point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's highly competitive world market, companies and private enterprises deliver their business on time. Their value and total costs play an essential role in their positions in the market. The most costly and difficult factors to regulate are shipping and distribution systems. The high cost of transportation and distribution systems is one reason for the increase in vehicle routing problems and studies in logistics network design. Vehicle routing problems (VRPs) are concerned with finding the optimal or near-optimal routes for vehicles to follow in meeting the demands of customers or facilities. The cash in transit (CIT) problem as a version of the VRP, deals with the planning of money distribution from the depot(s) to Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) safely and quickly. This paper investigates a novel CIT problem, which is a variant of split delivery VRP with time windows. To establish a novel approach to the CIT problem, different money currencies are considered. Also, multiple depots and heterogeneous fleet are included in the problem. To handle the CIT problem more realistically, a risk constrained multi-depot multi-product heterogeneous fleet split delivery VRP with a time windows formulation is proposed. The problem is hence formulated as a mixed-integer mathematical model. The mathematical model is run for different scenarios and optimal routes are obtained. The experimental analysis shows that the mathematical model developed, can help decision-makers to obtain effective solutions for their CIT operations with different money currencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the perceptions of Turkish customers regarding their experiences at Asian restaurants in Istanbul. Within the scope of the study, 1,348 online reviews written in Turkish on TripAdvisor for Asian restaurants operating in Istanbul were analyzed with the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) algorithm and sentiment analysis. As a result of the analysis nine dimensions affecting the experiences of Turkish customers at Asian restaurants were determined, four of which were specific to the restaurant (view, staff, place, order) and five of which were related to food (real taste, food, sauce and spice, sushi, flavor). It was found that flavor and food are the main dimensions that positively affect Turkish customers' Asian restaurant experiences. Order was found to be the most important dimension that negatively affects them. To my knowledge, this is the first study interpreting the perception of Turkish customers' experiences of Asian restaurants through online reviews in Turkish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gated communities have received significant attention in academic debates. Despite this, there is a lack of studies on differentiation and tensions between them. This paper analyses differentiation between gated communities by adopting the theory of “symbolic boundaries” [Lamont, M., 1992.Money,morals,and manners:the culture of the French and American upper-middle class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press]. It uses the data collected from fieldwork in two gated communities in Istanbul, Turkey, comprising semi-structured in-depth interviews with residents. First, the paper contributes to Lamont's “symbolic boundaries” [Lamont, M., 1992.Money,morals,and manners:the culture of the French and American upper-middle class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] by showing that morality is not independent from socio-economic context, but indicates the legitimate values of a given social context. This is shown in residents’ use of moral boundaries such as a law-abiding lifestyle, legitimate sources of capital accumulation and the existence of warmer relations with each other. Second, the paper contributes to the study of gated communities by demonstrating that they can be regarded as spatial manifestations of the division within the upper classes which results from competition for deserved status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Long acknowledged to be a center for religious pilgrimage, the importance of the Istanbul district of Eyüp is widely understood as being founded upon the figure of Halid bin Zeyd Ebâ Eyyûb el-Ensârî, a Companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Others point to the district's extensive cultural, political and social significance to explain its particular importance. In contrast, this paper avoids such reductive perspectives and argues that assemblage provides one particularly suggestive conceptual framework within which to reconsider Eyüp's significance, glossed in this paper as the ‘matters of the mosque'. Linking that discussion of assemblage to recent scholarship on Islam calling for a greater interrogation of the multiple (and sometimes ambivalent) modalities of religious practice, this paper draws on a series of fieldwork encounters to present one such grounded perspective. Paying particular attention to questions of agency, materiality and belief, this paper argues that assemblage provides an especially rich set of conceptual resources to continue developing new understandings of the practice of Islam; at the same time, this paper's careful attention to questions of belief addresses what has been heretofore underdeveloped in assemblage urbanism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to debates on urban citizenship and public culture. Drawing on detailed empirical research in Istanbul, Turkey, we analyse two key contemporary arts organisations that experiment with new organisational and curatorial practices in order to realise cultural infrastructures of common life in a city strongly shaped by urban development along neoliberal and neoconservative lines. Empirically, this directs attention to the near-complete absence of Turkish government actors and in turn the major role played by Turkish private businesses as well as public organisations, mostly from Europe, in supporting the contemporary arts in Istanbul. This particular institutional geography of funding and support sustains a local space of openness and autonomy from state intervention and enables these organisations to develop situated strategies of urban engagement. Theoretically, this paper develops the notion of spaces of openness and argues that these spaces are usefully conceptualised as experimental, networked and solidary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how layers of history can be parsed in a neighborhood through narrative analysis, using Balat, an old quarter of Istanbul, as a case study. The study tests the relevance of several methodologies and concepts, including palimpsest, chronotope and heterotopia, to see whether local, Constantinopolitan iterations of these ways of reading can be marshalled instead. To that end, it has recourse to Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s extensive writing on Istanbul to expand on concepts such as terkip, macera and buhran. These concepts are traced backwards and forwards in time to see how they apply to different writers’ work on Istanbul/Constantinople through the ages, such as Odo of Deuil, Evliya Çelebi, John Ash and Orhan Pamuk. This comparative exercise reveals an affective bond between the writers, one that favors imperial melancholia and nostalgia. The contemporary nostalgia/melancholia affect is then shown to be either savored or shunned by Istanbulites and visitors, as they make use of this poetics of the past as cultural capital, they may invest in for use on social media today [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the UN, more than half of the world population is already living in urban areas, around 6,8% thereof in socalled megacities, whose spatial dynamic is often difficult to keep track of, due to the high concentration of people who live in a relatively small area. The amount of people living in cities in general and in megacities in particular is going to increase further until 2030, which is why the study of megacities is getting more and more relevant as an object of research for Geography and remote sensing. The paper deals with the creation of an object-based land use and land cover classification of the most Southeast European megacity Istanbul, derivation of urban structure types based on this classification. WorldView satellite images with very high resolution have been used for this study. The results show that it is possible to differentiate between urban structure types simply based on a land use and land cover classification without additional data like cadastral or height information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water demand for Istanbul is supplied both by impounded reservoirs located within its provincial boundaries and by water transfer from Western and Eastern regions in peripheral areas, located in South-West Black Sea region. The runoff coefficient defined as the ratio of the streamflow to the precipitation, plays a key role in the calculation of the surface water yield of water catchment areas. In this paper, we present the computation of monthly runoff coefficients for an accurate estimation of the yield of the catchment areas. We obtain statistical parameters for monthly temperatures and precipitation, based on 105-year data recorded at Istanbul Kandilli Observatory, modeled as Gaussian and Rayleigh distributed random variables, respectively. We run simulations to predict temperatures and precipitation over a horizon extending to 2100. We apply Turc's formula and Thornthwaite method to obtain monthly runoff coefficients based on long-term data. The results are compared and discussed with the findings of previous researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an aspiring global city, Istanbul is at the crossroads of capital, political struggle, and socioeconomic transformation. Unfortunately, Istanbul is also at the crossroads of major active fault lines. This paper analyzes earthquake risk mitigation planning for the megacity since the last big seismic catastrophe of the Marmara Earthquakes in 1999 that hit the region, including Istanbul. We use the concept of riskscape to explore the political and technocratic construction of seismic risk and how this implies different experiences of risk to investment portfolios, the state, and the ordinary people living in the city. Our empirical analyses focus on the 'Istanbul Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Project' (ISMEP), launched as a World Bank project in 2005 and still ongoing as of 2020. We argue that the ISMEP project epitomizes the 'strange case' of earthquake risk mitigation in Istanbul due to its organizational complexity, financial expansion over its lifetime, and progression as a megaproject sponsored by international development funding despite its contraction in institutional targets. Our findings suggest that this centralized and non-transparent earthquake risk mitigation approach in Istanbul creates a fragmented riskscape for the megacity. The earthquake risk continues to threaten millions of inhabitants' lives and livelihoods while making room for speculative real estate development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Built in the sixth century as an Orthodox church, the building dedicated to Christ as Holy Wisdom--Hagia Sophia--has served as a symbol of power and faith. Ingeniously designed and lavishly endowed with images and objects, Hagia Sophia has enhanced ecclesiastical and imperial ceremonies, has awed and inspired, and has adapted to changing religious and political landscapes over the course of its long history. This paper details the impressive architecture and decorations of Hagia Sophia, as well as its transformations from a Christian church into a mosque, then into a secular institution, a museum, and now once again into a mosque. The argument centres on the cultural and spiritual power of Hagia Sophia, which continues to stimulate the imagination and the spirit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the performance of the multilevel model within the metropolitan area and explores the submarkets of housing prices at the metropolitan level. In addition to the district and neighborhood segmentation within municipal boundaries, areas using the same street for transportation are segmented into submarkets to reveal the effect of the street on price. A fully-random multilevel model is used for finding out a correlation between the prices of housing units and their location. This study compares four submarket modeling strategies based on the data on housing sale transactions in Istanbul. The first model is a simple hedonic model using ordinary least squares and taken as a city-wide 'benchmark' model. Three different types of multilevel models are used for models 2,3 and 4. Model 2 and model 3 use district and neighborhood boundaries, which are respectively predefined as spatial divisions. Model 4 represents the geographically smaller areas that use the same street for transportation. The results reveal that multilevel models with smaller spatial units of geography are capable of improving predictive performance in determining dwelling prices in the metropolitan area and that the sub-regional spatial units that use the same street for transportation have an effect on the spatial dimension of submarket boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines heritage, and particularly intangible heritage, by concentrating on the experience of smell to explore a heritage site in Istanbul, Turkey: the Spice Market. Due to a restoration project, the site became the focus of the 2012 international workshop ‘Urban Cultural Heritage and Creative Practice,’ which aimed at documenting the existing and threatened scents of the marketplace. In 2016 a gallery exhibition, ‘Scent and the City,’ was created as part of an effort to raise awareness about how scent constitutes an important component of the heritage of place. After providing a brief overview of the marketplace’s transformations since its construction in the seventeenth century, this paper covers various methods of scent research, including scent walks, mapping, oral history interviews, and artistic performances, and illustrates how the smellscapes of this historic, and now touristic, quarter of Istanbul are changing. By bringing a sensory approach to this important heritage site in Istanbul we demonstrate how an embodied approach, which forefronts scent as intangible heritage and a primary modality, can serve as a catalyst for individuals and communities to access their memories, emotions, and values and increase awareness of the role scent plays in defining locality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Outside of the Global North, where agri-food systems have not yet consolidated into a 'funnel shape,' what makes an urban provisioning actor 'alternative' is not always clear. In this paper, I use members' own definitions, emphases, and arguments to differentiate 'alternative' networks from other provisioning actors. Using data from semi-structured interviews, I show that while community-building and an affiliation with the food movement (broadly defined) are the most critical features identified by people who participate in these networks, more informal, ad hoc, familial or village networks that are utilized as a response to urban food insecurity are excluded. While such exclusions may not be unique, in this case, they reflect more fundamental divisions regarding what 'alternative' implies and how to challenge the throttling hold of conventional provisioning agents on the contemporary agri-food system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper compares how Istanbul and Beirut both attempt to underline their cultural and developmental uniqueness today in contrast to a metonymic menace – Dubai, standing in for spectacular yet supposedly cultureless Gulf cities. Even amid their own speculative construction frenzies that threaten local heritage, Turkish and Lebanese city-shapers assert theirs are 'real' cities because they have 'civilization' and 'history.' By addressing their own efforts to build, defend, or oppose physical infrastructures related to local urban culture, Istanbullus and Beirutis rely on and reassert strategic, phatic discourses that frequently reference Gulf cities as counterpoint. Analysis focuses on how each city crafts a distinctive urban profile via civilizational appeals to historic senses of culture, inflecting infrastructural developments related to bridging (Istanbul) and bordering (Beirut). Historical truisms are deployed with marked flexibility to showcase these cities as 'not Dubai.' This study offers lessons on the particular worlding of Middle Eastern cities and the role of discourses in the material-symbolic infrastructure of implicit urban cultural policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable urban transitions promise high mitigation and adaptation potential to address the effects of anthropogenic climate change. The two coastal megacities studied in this paper, Shanghai and Istanbul, have the potential for low-carbon urban transitions that can destabilize existing regimes. The destabilization is brought about by the disruptive business model innovations of the sharing economy in Shanghai's mobility sector and by the energy-efficient practices developed alongside the intensification of the building sector through the process of urban renewal in Istanbul. However, the emergence of such urban transitions through the actions of agents relies on the existence of enabling environments for regime destabilization. In a comparative case study of Shanghai and Istanbul, we assess the challenges of realizing regime destabilization opportunities through an enabling environment framework. We find that without adequate enabling environments for regime destabilization, urban transitions to sustainability may fail to achieve effective low-carbon action and make progress towards meeting the sustainable development goals. We also show that while deliberate and collective efforts are underway from multiple agents within and beyond the two megacities, the environments for regime destabilization in the building and transport sectors considered remain insufficient primarily due to conflicting priorities among key agents in the underlying urban systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical reliability assessment, which is based on past real data, is vital for utilities since it reflects the system's operational behavior best. Therefore, most utilities prefer historical reliability assessment rather than a predictive assessment. This paper includes two major parts; the first part analyses the historical data for four feeders sector of the Bosporus Electricity Distribution Incorporated distribution grid based on their historical collected data, while, the second part of the paper uses the analyzed historical data as a reference input for the Monte Carlo simulation method to assess the future reliability analysis. The results show that the proposed reliability assessment methodology is a powerful tool for the future reliability assessment of power distribution grids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a methodology of decision making and policy guidance based on a multi-criteria decision aiding (MCDA) method for a comprehensive evaluation of intercity bus terminals in Istanbul, Turkey. Since decisions on the location of bus terminals in large agglomerations determine transportation costs and the quality of service of public transport passengers, the use of multicriteria analysis becomes necessary. In that respect, the intercity bus terminals proposed by 2023 Long-Range Landuse Plan (LRLUP) and 2023 Transportation Master Plan (TMP) of Istanbul are examined based on decision criteria of accessibility and suitability within the environment they are located. The multi-criteria analysis was performed using the additive value (AV) model to evaluate the locations of existing and planned intercity bus terminals in Istanbul based on their specific location characteristics defined. Criteria used in the analysis are the location within the region, population coverage and density, land value, accessibility by highway and public transit modes, availability of land for capacity expansion, and the surrounding land-use and geological characteristics. Based on the design criteria assessed, a general score for the location of each intercity bus-terminal (two existing and nine planned) was calculated using normalized importance weights obtained from an expert survey, and then the terminals were ranked based on their scores calculated for the base (2010 and before) and plan years (2023), respectively. Based on their total score, they were ranked and grouped into three categories as follows: (1) scores higher than 0.75, (2) between 0.51 and 0.75, and (3) equal to or smaller than 0.50. All planned terminals scored equal or higher than 0.50 (two out of nine are in the first category, six are in the second category, and one is in the third category), and this proved that all of them were planned where they were needed. Then, an availability analysis was carried out to identify the configurations of the bus terminals depending on each other, which is deemed to yield their best configuration. The results of this paper will be of relevance to urban and transportation planners facing a decision to make and prioritize transport planning decisions concerning the spatial planning of a metropolitan city based on chosen decision criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring intersections of spaces, practices, and representations of urbanity and the city in late sixteenth-century Istanbul, this paper traces the emergence of a new set of themes centered on the main public square, the streets, and the denizens of the Ottoman capital in illustrated court histories. It considers new visual imaginings of city and urbanity in view of three issues that resonate with the history of early modern Istanbul: modalities and the lexicon of vision as they took shape parallel to changing spatial practices; the making of a new urban public, and polyphonic forms of representation concomitant to the emergence of new publicities; the conflicted political environment that turned the city's public spaces into arenas of contestation in the later decades of the 1500s. To this end, the article focuses on narrative paintings and texts of a set of manuscripts created between the late 1580s and the turn of the seventeenth century, and with particular attention to the Sūrnāme-i Humāyūn (Book of Festivities, 1588), explores the notions and connections that shaped them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to offer a framework for the gradual transition to cycling as a sustainable mode of transport in developing megacities having low or non-existent cycling modal share. By drawing on multi-level perspective, the paper first establishes a socio-technical transition framework incorporating the multi-actor, multi-level and multi-dimensional aspects of the cycling systems. The paper then argues that the transition to cycling is contingent on integrating the multiple dimensions of the cycling socio-technical system. A case study of cycling in Istanbul, a rapidly growing developing megacity in Turkey with a population of nearly 15 million people, is given to illustrate how the proposed framework can be applied. The paper concludes that significant progress towards the introduction of cycling in Istanbul depends on integrating a variety of socio-technical elements including infrastructure, technology, policies and regulations, culture and social meanings. This perspective informs the analysis of the socio-technical transition to cycling for the cities aiming to introduce cycling for the first time. The paper contributes to both sustainable urban mobility and socio-technical transition literature by developing a novel framework for cycling systems. • Proposes a socio-technical transition framework for the adoption of cycling in developing megacities • Adapts the multi-level perspective (MLP) approach for cycling systems • Provides a multi-level, multi-dimensional and multi-actor analysis of the cycling systems • Gives an empirical application of the proposed framework for Istanbul's urban mobility [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the everyday mobilities of low-income populations during the Covid-19 pandemic through a mixed-methods study in İstanbul. It shows how additional economic burdens brought by the Covid-19 pandemic interplay with low-income residents' attitudes towards using different transport modes, mobility levels, and concerns over public transport use based on socioeconomic and demographic differences. It suggests that household structures, social networks and perceived mobility restrictions tend to be associated with mobility patterns and practices. The paper argues that changes and continuities in mobility trends and practices due to the pandemic should be considered with broader social and economic dynamics at the household and community level. It draws key lessons learned concerning the pandemic mobilities to be transferred to future transport policy and mobility governance so that intragenerational inequalities could be mainstreamed in these policy domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]