The mega-city of Istanbul is situated on the geographical interface between the Middle-East and Europe and is the most populous urban settlement in Europe, with its almost 16 million inhabitants. By the 2030s, it is expected that the population will exceed 20 million people.
Growth in the built environment, such as bridges and highways, as well as the economic and service sectors stimulated the establishment of a polycentric city. However, in some cases the urban expansion encroached areas of environmental protection, such as catchment areas, forests and high-quality agricultural land. The city is highly prone to earthquakes and vulnerable to natural hazards as landslides and floods. Istanbul is considered the financial centre of Turkey; most of the industrial plants in Turkey are located in Istanbul, which attracts investments and job opportunities.
The city has not been able to offer sufficient solutions for a resilient and equitable urban built environment, and the existing legal frameworks and regulations for urban renewal are often ineffective. The city requires strengthened tools for enhancing urban governance, promotion of citizen participation and coordination mechanisms between different stakeholders that influence urban transformations and decision-making.
The Global Future Cities Programme aims to provide technical assistance to the development of the first Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan of Istanbul, with the specific goal of increasing accessibility, connectivity, social inclusion and sustainable economic growth in the
megacity.
A Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) is the result of a structured process comprised of status analysis, vision building, objective and target setting, policy and measure selection, active communication, monitoring and evaluation. In principle, it is a strategic plan designed to satisfy the mobility needs of people and businesses in cities and their surroundings for a better quality of life. It builds on existing planning practices with due consideration of integration, participation, and evaluation principles.
The SUMP for Istanbul will address the integration and coherence with the existing planning frameworks and build upon participatory processes to ensure future implementation and sustainability.
This tailormade sheet aims to demonstrate how the SDG Project Assessment Tool's General Framework has been tailored to the project in Istanbul, Turkey. It highlights how the project includes the priorities within the Sustainable Development Goals, and the different principles that were selected for this project. As this sheet has been tailored to the project's scope and needs, the performance criteria has been selected in consultation with the partners of the Programme.
Urban Planning Training and Capacity Development Programme for Resilient Istanbul
With this magnitude of agglomeration and urban vitality, the Greater Municipality needs a new approach with an innovative methodological framework towards an inclusive, resilient and sustainable future for Istanbul. This project aims to support capacity development for the “Next Generation Participatory Planning Framework” in urban planning processes of the Municipality based on open government vision.
The project will focus on a specialized and localized capacity development programme for participatory planning for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) which will ensure proactive participation of all inhabitants of Istanbul (including women, disadvantageous groups, refugees, tourists etc.) through inclusive and transparent lenses in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) New Urban Agenda (NUA). In addition, the challenges of the new Information Age (such as digital divide among different social groups) and associated other urban dynamics will be considered in the new framework design with a focus on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) enabled multi-channel and multilingual participation methodologies
This tailormade sheet aims to demonstrate how the SDG Project Assessment Tool's General Framework has been tailored to the project in Istanbul, Turkey. It highlights how the project includes the priorities within the Sustainable Development Goals, and the different principles that were selected for this project. As this sheet has been tailored to the project's scope and needs, the performance criteria has been selected in consultation with the partners of the Programme.
The urban expansion encroached areas of environmental protection, such as catchment areas, forests and high-quality agricultural land.
The city has a complex network of trajectories and flows, the wide range of public transport types, and the lack of real-time transport-related information.
The Istanbul City Context Report is part of a series of reports provided for each city of the Global Future Cities Programme, serving as a tool to frame the proposed Programme interventions within the characteristics and conditions of each city. The City Context Report provides a general analysis of the spatial, financial, and legal conditions in the city, followed by potential impact of the interventions, and a set of evidence-based recommendations for successful implementation and maximised benefits. In Istanbul, the projects identified are focused on the preparation of a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) and a development of a participatory approach in urban planning.
