URBAN PLANNING IN RELATION TO DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT: THE PLANS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATIONS IN ISTANBUL

Abstract

The main question of this study is whether urban planning plays an active role in disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) or not in Turkey. Golcuk and Duzce Earthquakes in Turkey (1999) showed the problem of unplanned urbanization has caused great suffering and economic loss in a striking way. At the same time, it was understood how administrations and society were unprepared for disasters with only the emergency response method. Then the last twenty years have attempted to maintain the process in parallel DRRM directions with international perspective and great progress has been made in Turkey. However, this research was developed with the concern that similar development was not recorded in the urban planning regulation and practice. Urban planning is a tool to support spatial damage reduction and development of social knowledge and awareness to realize the DRRM process. Accordingly, the determination of land use decisions and construction conditions, as well as ensuring participation in the production of planning decisions to cover various social sub-groups are directly within the scope of risk reduction. In this study, how the concepts and methods defined within the scope of DRRM are developed and applied through urban planning have been accepted as indicators in measuring how much DRRM can be achieved. Accordingly, the documents developed in the country and local scale within the scope of DRRM after the 1999 Golcuk and Duzce earthquakes were examined in depth which describe the role, content and application of urban planning in Turkey and Istanbul. The documents examined in the study recorded the developments in the period between 2000 and 2017. Documents examined on the national scale consist of laws, regulations, development plans and strategy documents. On the local scale, risk analysis reports made after the earthquake, master and environmental plans, as well as risky areas approved by law No. 6306 and developing transformation plans for these areas were examined in the case of Istanbul. As a result of the research, it has been determined that the conceptual and theoretical framework developed on a national scale is immature, local practices produce controversial results and cannot draw a clear framework. The results obtained due to this contradiction are urban planning has been manipulated with the discourse of risk reduction, have not focus on solving the problem yet, and the increasing in urbanization and population density in risky areas to cause increasing uncertainty in the city.