POPULATION AGGLOMERATIONS AND ITS IMPLICATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A SURVEY OF GREEN AREAS IN THE TURKISH MEGACITY ISTANBUL

Abstract

Developing countries experience high population growth and pronounced agglomerations with extreme population increases in metropolitan centers which lack relevant infrastructure. Frequently, urban development in developing countries can not proceed in an environmentally friendly fashion, urban plans are not implemented correctly, and green areas are lost due to constructions. Occupying 1% of the Turkish land area and accommodating over one sixth of the Turkish population, Istanbul is one of such cities and its population has increased from one million to 13 million in the last 60 years. Urban area including settlements has been increasing continuously throughout those years at the expense of losing the green areas. The amount of green areas had diminished from 27325 to 8908 hectares in the last 60 years with a reduction of 67% as opposed to settlement areas increasing by more than five fold from 3417 to 22178 hectares in the study area. The most significant reason behind that is that Istanbul has to live through a vast population increase. Although green areas kept increasing constantly in the 30 years between 1975 and 2004 from 1695 hectares to 5435, the amount of urban green per capita had dropped from 6.7 m2/person in 1975 to 5.5 m2/person in 2004 even though the total amount of green areas had increased, to show that the enhancement of the green areas could not keep up with the pace of incoming population.

Keywords

• Green areas, Settlement areas, Istanbul, Megacity, Developing countries

Kaynakça

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