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Large-scale high-rise architecture projects have been central to the rise of the construction industry in Turkey in recent years. This vertical escalation, however, has not been received without dissidence. Scholars, activists, journalists and officials with different viewpoints have participated in media debates regarding the reasons and consequences of this transformation. In these discussions, stakeholders have raised various environmental, cultural and ethical concerns that the vertical organisation of cities generate. Focussing on juxtapositions of Izmir and Istanbul in debates on urban verticality in the city of Izmir, Turkey's third most populated city, the paper examines how such comparisons with Istanbul, where the recent urban neoliberal transformation is experienced most intensely, have been mobilised to oppose vertical expansion. The paper argues that as a result of the recent centralisation of the Turkish economy around construction, the hyper-visibility of skyscrapers and the concentration of the urban transformation generated by the Turkish construction industry in Istanbul, skyscrapers have become materialised symbols of Istanbul's integration into global capitalism, neoliberal urbanisation, and the difference between Istanbul and other urban centres in Turkey. This example establishes urban verticality as a discursive axis at which urban centres outside of the Global North establish their difference from each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to expose the significant contribution of colour information to the classification of 3D points from dense aerial image matching. In this study, colour information was used to compensate for the lack of additional information in photogrammetric point clouds with the proposed automatic hierarchical rule-based classification approach. Two point-based classification approaches based on only spatial-based features and combining the use of spatial-based features and colour information were developed in order to classify photogrammetric point cloud data. The hierarchical rules were developed using the selected features for the proposed point-based classification approaches. Detailed parameter analyses for the developed rules were carried out in pilot areas. The photogrammetric point clouds from the Zekeriyakoy test site in Istanbul were automatically classified, and ground, building, and vegetation classes were acquired using only spatial-based features and using both spatial-based features and colour information. The contribution of the colour information was clearly seen in the vegetation points classified as buildings in woodland and urban areas, as well as in the ground points classified as vegetation in urban areas. The performed accuracy analysis of photogrammetric 3D point cloud classification with the combined use of spatial-based features and colour information verified the improvement of overall accuracy from 70 to 78% in comparison to the classification of only spatial-based features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City logistics approaches and modeling struggles have a significant role in urban areas in increasing the efficiency of logistics operations and reducing traffic jams and their environmental effects. By developing an effective distribution network for cities, it is possible to compete with the changing world and satisfy flexible customer requirements. In this study, as a real-world case, a city logistics model for Istanbul metropolitan area is designed using multi-objective linear programming that considers the different objectives of the stakeholders in cities by integrating the fuzzy Choquet integral technique in a multi-level distribution network for the automotive spare part industry. This paper makes decisions regarding the amount of product flowing among the echelons, the amount of stock to be kept in the warehouses, and the product delays allowed. While minimizing the transportation cost, holding cost and emission levels during these decisions, the study also aims to maximize the service quality in the warehouses. The model is applied to a logistics network of fifty demand points and thirty time periods which can be considered a middle or large-scale problem. In the model, it is also decided to transport the products with electric or fuel vehicles. In the transport sector, electric vehicles are the key to meet future needs for social, health and other human services. The results are discussed under different scenarios. This research allows the use of such a model in making strategic decisions for the distribution network design in big cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City walls have played a significant role in the history of many cities in both Europe and Anatolia in the Middle Ages. Following the development of war technology, the city walls lost their importance as defensive structures, which led to changes in the urban patterns of walled cities. In the case of Istanbul, the city walls began to lose their defensive role after the Ottoman takeover of the city in the fifteenth century. However, the walls have continued to play new roles beyond defense, such as forming the city's physical, legal, and fiscal boundaries. The Ottoman authorities repaired and conserved the city walls in line with their changing roles, values and meaning for the city. Nevertheless, the city walls in Istanbul were damaged by earthquakes, city fires and particularly urban planning practices in the nineteenth century, as was the case in many walled cities. This paper discusses the intertwined history of preservation and demolition of the city walls by analyzing a cost estimate, dated 1894 and located in the Ottoman State Archives, which was prepared by the modernizing administration of the Ottoman State for the repairs of the Istanbul Land Walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emphasizes the significance of social infrastructure in understanding urban inequality. In addition to its economic opportunities, social infrastructure is one of the distinguishing characteristics of metropolitan areas. In cities of the 21st century, social infrastructure is not equally accessible to all residences. For the development and sustainability of urban life, social infrastructure is fundamental. In terms of establishing a sense of belonging and integration to contemporary urban life, social infrastructure is highly crucial especially for refugees and rural migrants who migrate to the periphery of big cities. By evaluating the findings of this study conducted in Esenler District, we aim to contribute to research dealing with urban inequalities in Istanbul from the perspective of social infrastructure. To fill a gap in the literature, the social infrastructure of the Esenler District, which consists of rural-to-urban migration, refugee flow, and the working class in Istanbul's periphery, was analyzed by comparing it to other districts. The database created from various data sources and satellite images is presented with thematic maps. According to the findings, there is a significant divide between the central and peripheral districts of Istanbul in terms of social infrastructure. This inequality manifests itself in four ways: education, health, recreation, and fuel for housing. First, there are serious problems, such as the limited number of kindergartens, the high-class size in primary schools, and the poor quality of high schools in front of Esenler, which has a low education level. Second, there are only six healthcare centers in Esenler, where health services are inadequate compared to the central districts. Third, the green space cannot meet the recreational needs of the dense population in the district where unplanned and intensive construction has left no free space. Due to limited purchasing power, natural gas usage in Esenler is fairly low compared to central districts, despite the dense population. On the basis of these indicators, it has been concluded that the Esenler District, lacks the essential social infrastructure services necessary to maintain the city's health. Therefore, strengthening the social infrastructure on the urban periphery is a primary concern for developing a better understanding of urban inequalities, preventing problems, and making livable urban environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods help researchers in solving many problems in terms of numerical analysis. However, MCDM methods have not been very popular in the health sector. In this study, five ones of Turkey's most intense and highly populated cities were selected and the risk of the spread of Covid-19 disease was evaluated on the basis of seven criteria. The PROMETHEE and the ELECTRE methods were conducted to rank the cities in terms of the spread of Covid-19. The PROMETHEE method correctly ranked the most risky city as Istanbul, but ELECTRE ranked Istanbul the second most risky. The results of the methods are compared with real data. PROMETHEE gave more convenient results than ELECTRE. Also, this paper offers a new field of study to the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landslides are one of the devastating geohazards that cause extensive socio-economic and environmental damages on local, regional, and global scales. Previous studies based on digital media sources have attracted attention to the high fatal landslide rate in Turkey, at a continental or global scale; however, the preparation of a comprehensive and long-term database for Turkey has been neglected until today. To examine this data gap, we present a new database of fatal landslide events resulting in fatalities from 1929 to 2019, which has been compiled using Turkish national and local printed and digital media reports, academic papers, disaster, and city annual reports. The fatal database of Turkey (FATALDOT) shows that, in total, 1343 people were killed in 389 fatal landslide events. The spatiotemporal distribution of the fatal landslides highlighted increasing trends with reference to two distinct hotspot zones throughout the Eastern Black Sea and Marmara Region, mostly around Istanbul megacity. Our results show that there has been a significant uniformity between the number of fatalities and fatal landslides triggered by anthropogenic and natural factors over the past decade, indicating an increasing dominance of human activities in fatality rates. Our findings also, for the first time, remarked the potential signatures of the economic crisis and political steadiness on fatal landslide trends. Nevertheless, we conclude that the increasing rate of anthropogenic disturbances in urban and mountainous areas, together with regional variances in topography and climatic setting, is essential in governing the pattern of fatal landslides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we focus on the estimation of crowding in public transport – specifically urban rail systems – and its effect on perceived comfort. It is different from similar studies in the method it employs for estimating crowding levels in vehicles. Specifically, we formulate a function of time and location, which uses only passenger embarking data to estimate the number of passengers in vehicles. Then we convert the estimated crowding values into perceived discomfort levels by trip section. Our method depends on hourly seasonality assumptions but provides good estimates of crowding in urban rail systems even when passenger alighting data is not available. We illustrate the implementation of our model with the example of the Istanbul Metro system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper, we analyse an ordinary urban process, which has received little attention so far, and propose a new concept to take account of it: plotting urbanism. It is usually subsumed under terms like "urban informality" or "incremental urbanism" and not studied as a distinct process. In comparing Lagos, Istanbul and Shenzhen we captured four defining features of plotting urbanism: first, it unfolds in a piecemeal fashion with limited comprehensive planning. Second, it emerges from specific territorial compromises often resulting from conflicts between overlapping modes of territorial regulation, land tenure and property rights. Third, plotting is based on commodification of housing and land, which might accentuate socio‐economic differentiations between property‐owners, who often live in the same area, and their tenants. The term "plotting" highlights the key role of the plot in the process. It also alludes to strategic acts of collaboration for individual and collective benefit. [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]

Cities have been changing with the winds of globalization, which transforms economic structure from production to a more consumption-based economy. Especially since the 1990s, international events have increasingly become a new tool for attracting visitors, which bring revenue for the cities and enhance their competitiveness. Economically, it has been estimated that sporting events contribute 3% of the gross domestic product of OECD countries. Discussions in the literature related to sporting events generally focus on three main points: the organization and financing; the economic impacts; and the legacy of the events. The aim of this paper is to examine the hosting process of Formula 1 as a sporting event in Istanbul by taking into consideration the main discussion points. However, because the 2011 Formula 1 events no longer take place in Istanbul due to the lack of audience and very high costs, it has taught Istanbul some very important lessons. This paper argues that the public sector has failed to perform its most important role: proving the legitimacy of the event. Furthermore, the cost of Istanbul Park is huge, but the participation levels have been a lot lower than the Park's capacity and the legacy would be considered unfavorable. Most importantly, Formula 1's lack of success in Turkey can lead to a better understanding of the main strategies of urban development over the last decade, how to stimulate economic growth and enhance new capital accumulation through the big projects within the most competitive cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the politics of earthquake disasters in Istanbul, Turkey, arguing that urban assemblage theory offers a useful framework for thinking about disaster as an urban phenomenon. It examines the effects of the 1999 Marmara earthquake disaster and the anticipation of future earthquakes on Istanbul's built environment and urban politics, tracing how the city's fragile buildings become a source of personal anxiety and political critique, how debates about responsibility and blame reveal divergent understandings of nature and society, and how earthquake risk is mobilized to both justify and challenge controversial urban transformation projects. The paper argues that disasters prompt explicit engagements with the sociomaterial assemblages that make up the city, and ethnographic attention to these entanglements can reveal how those assemblages become legible as matters of political concern. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to explore the success of the recent regeneration efforts in building sustainable communities in historic housing areas of Istanbul that have suffered from growing problems of urban deprivation and poverty. It explains the interplay between conservation, community needs and sustainability, based on the assumption that finding a balance between the needs, aspirations and concerns of local communities and the conservation of the built environments will lead to the creation of more equitable and sustainable communities in Istanbul's historic quarters. After investigating the Turkish urban conservation policy agenda, and the recent changes in the urban and socio-spatial structure of Istanbul, it examines the European Union-funded regeneration initiative of Fener and Balat, a declining neighbourhood in the Historic Peninsula. Debating the strengths and weaknesses of the community-based and participatory programme, the paper attempts to give clues for future regeneration initiatives to develop sustainable community policies in the historic neighbourhoods of Istanbul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the multicenter development course of Istanbul based upon urban travel patterns in the city. The spatial distribution of population and employment between 1970 and 2000 illustrated a decentralizing trend in the urban structure. Hierarchical clustering analysis was used to determine relatively homogenous groups of interactions and to explain the interaction patterns among the districts. The results of the study supported the multicenter development at the lower level on both continents (Asia and Europe), and at the upper level between the continents. Determination of efficient locations of new subcenters was suggested for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are considered to be the major drivers of the global economy for many reasons, including their creative and innovative potential in generating sustainable economic growth. Istanbul is one of the global cities searching for a long-term growth strategy. This paper starts with a modest effort of composing an index to be used in the evaluation of the creative potential of cities. Our proposed index, “global creative index”, consists of five main criteria: (1) creativeness, (2) innovativeness, (3) intellectual development, (4) global network connectivity and (5) world cityness emphasizing multinational corporate economy, international division of labour and high intensity of producer and financial services. The use of the index is illustrated through the comparison of nine cities: Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Toronto. The analysis of these nine cities shows that Istanbul is building an innovation environment, but it still lacks research and development infrastructure, technical support and investment in higher education. This comparison offers guidelines for policy-makers to sketch the growth of Istanbul along the lines of creativity and innovativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Potential impact of large earthquakes on urban societies can be reduced by timely and correct action after a disastrous earthquake. Modern technology permits measurements of strong ground shaking in near real-time for urban areas exposed to earthquake risk. The Istanbul Earthquake Rapid Response System equipped with 100 instruments and two data processing centers aims at the near real time estimation of earthquake damages using most recently developed methodologies and up-to-date structural and demographic inventories of Istanbul city. The methodology developed for near real time estimation of losses after a major earthquake consists of the following general steps: (1) rapid estimation of the ground motion distribution using the strong ground motion data gathered from the instruments; (2) improvement of the ground motion estimations as earthquake parameters become available and (3) estimation of building damage and casualties based on estimated ground motions and intensities. The present paper elaborates on the ground motion and damage estimation methodologies used by the Istanbul Earthquake Rapid Response System with a special emphasis on validation and verification of the different methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Istanbul is undergoing a radical and dramatic restructuring as the authorities seek to bring about a 'Neoliberal Modernisation' of the city. This centres on the promotion of market-oriented rationality, and private property. Current plans envisage restructuring huge swathes of the city to bring about functioning land and property markets. The resulting threat to residents and communities has provoked widespread but sporadic resistance. This paper sets the pressure for the social 'purging' of Istanbul in the context of the global spread of Authoritarian NeoLiberalism. After describing the main features of the Turkish variant, and noting the parallels to autocratic rule in late Ottoman Istanbul, it traces the impact on local communities. Three cases studies of responses to regeneration plans, drawn from both the European and Asian sides of the city, reveal the diversity of local responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of water management in Istanbul, a megacity with a population of 11.5 million. The population of Istanbul grew at almost twice the overall rate of the whole of Turkey because of a large in-migration. The projected water demand was underestimated and Istanbul experienced severe water shortages in the early 1990s. During the last decade US$ 3.6 billion of investments were made to improve and expand water and wastewater systems. Several large-scale water transmission projects were started. The percentage of treated wastewater increased from 10% to 95% within the same period. The unaccounted-for water rate has been reduced from 50% to 34%. Environmental protection measures have been put into effect to protect the watersheds of the water reservoirs. The 2002 Metropolis Award Winner Golden Horn Environment Protection Project is another example of environmental rehabilitation efforts undertaken in Istanbul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]