“Green Infrastructure” Concept as an Effective Medium to Manipulating Sustainable Urban Development

This chapter aims at exploring and conceptualizing green infrastructure (GI) as a comprehensive system in planning schemes of metropolitan cities such as Melbourne (Australia) and Izmir (Türkiye). Urban open space network(s) and its further step, “GI,” stretches out from the urban core through its periphery. This requires investigation of the planning hierarchy between metropolitan planning and urban design with a focus on connectivity and urban sustainability. Supporting and managing physical development, modes of transportation, and social life, GI provides ecological and social services to cities in pursuit of sustainable development. Following the scrutiny of Melbourne’s GI and its relevance to the planning history, this work undertakes a comparative analysis between Melbourne and Izmir in order to address the development of a metropolitan GI system for these cities. Such an approach would support policies and strategies relating to sustainable urban development.

Local Commitment

This contribution concerns the planning process applicable to sustainable urban neighbourhoods whose increasing number in Europe appears to be changing the framework of urban development. Having briefly presented the main characteristics of sustainable neighbourhoods in Europe, this chapter then specifically concentrates on sustainable urban neighbourhoods resulting from an ecological rehabilitation process in the city of Albertslund, in Denmark. While these rehabilitation experiments remain anecdotal when compared with new sustainable districts, they nevertheless represent a far greater structuring potential for cities. Our hypothesis is that the implementation of sustainable development renews local planning practices. We shall also see how these districts attempt to overcome a major contradiction inherent in new eco-neighbourhoods by combining a search for eco-technological performances with the incorporation of more social and cultural challenges. Our research suggests that the local actions of inhabitants can play an important role in making sustainable development work.

Eco-Municipalities and Municipal Applications for Sustainability

The eco-municipality models and municipal applications for sustainability are criticized for not yet finding a sustainable development model for Turkish municipalities. In the improvement of the sustainable municipality concept, some common decision had been taken and defined the related standards. LA21, EMAS for municipalities, and ISO standards are the examples coming forward. The methodology is based on literature review of experiences of the eco-projects that have been made in municipalities and SWOT analyses for these projects. In Turkey, the first step has been taken in LA21 processes to adopt the eco-municipal approach in transformation. For the further steps, the need for establishing an integrated model among the different applications has been concluded.

A Theory for Sustainability of Townscape

Many metropolitan cities have been faced with sustainability issues at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The problems are related to several subjects. Two of them are essential for the sustainability of townscapes: one is the subject of visual sustainability of the character of a townscape, and the other is the sustainable development of the city and its relation with the urban form. Overcoming the difficulties arising from the improper use of city’s resources can be possible by understanding the true nature of its urban form, how urban landscapes have developed historically, and which processes have shaped their forms. Typomorphology is a method for understanding the character of the urban form. It reveals the physical and spatial structure of cities. In this work, typomorphological method will be introduced, and its importance will be discussed according to sustainability of townscapes.

An Approach for Land-Use Suitability Assessment Using Decision Support Systems, AHP and GIS

Nowadays, analysis of land-use suitability requires consideration of variety of criteria including not only natural/physical capacity of a land unit but also socio-economic and environmental impact implications. This chapter suggests an approach instead of typical synthesis and land-use suitability assessment methods that is used in the urban and regional planning. Using the decision support systems with AHP and GIS, a participative, GIS-supported, different, new, flexible, and soft approach is proposed for land-use suitability assessment of cities and regions in particular. The chapter presents a technique integrating SWOT-CATWOE analysis, the Delphi and Inquiry Technique, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), and a Geographic Information System (GIS) to evaluate the land-use suitability for cities. By the help of this study, settlement suitability analyses have been achieved according to the socio-economic and infrastructure, environmental or physical thresholds of the settlement, and this integration could benefit urban planners and decision makers. The proposed method begins with the identification of settlement requirements, followed by the derivation of settlement evaluation criteria with SWOT-CATWOE analysis and the Delphi and Inquiry Technique. Then, pairwise comparisons (PC matrices) are formed between each pair of settlement criteria. The AHP is used to measure the relative importance or weight of each settlement criterion. This chapter has intended a theoretical and scientific base for an AHP and GIS combination with decision support systems. Thus, when land-use suitability assessment has taken as this combination of decision support systems, AHP and GIS, more realistic, more accurate, and applicable results emerge.

The First Ecological Steps in Architectural Utopias

In the first appearance of living spaces and creating new ones, human being’s fundamental aim was to be prepared for all sorts of natural circumstances, which can be “wild” and “cruel” sometimes. Protecting itself from these hard circumstances, the human being has aimed to create safe places. In this struggle which is occasionally named as “war”, the spaces designed come out as the main fortresses. This chapter aims to seek out human beings’ efforts in the struggle with the natural circumstances and especially the shift of it in the mid twentieth century, in the light of architectural structures of utopias. In other words, the chapter may be seen as a research of imaginary projects which have starting points as “peace and happiness, assessing them to see if they have peaceful approaches to nature or not.” The chapter also aims to examine, from the first simple projects to notable ones, how nature was handled and how the projects responded to the scenarios of natural resource scarcities of the future. As smart cities try to meet the requirements of today with scarce resources, the question in mind in the examination of utopias is “May these imaginary projects be the first sketches of smart cities?”

Sustainable and Equitable Urbanism

This chapter explores how information and communication technology (ICT) can be used in urban sustainability planning to encourage more ecologically friendly habits and improve social equity. We start by asking why current initiatives to teach ecological urban practices are not more aligned with social equity goals. To understand this misalignment, we review the historical relationship between environmental and social concerns within evolving notions of sustainable development. We then define a framework for urban sustainability that more fully incorporates equity concerns. Unpacking the idea that there are no technical solutions to urban poverty, we argue that intelligent applications of ICT in urban services can significantly improve the reach of public transportation, resource distribution, and civic engagement. We encourage future initiatives to design with social goals in mind, ending with a discussion of current challenges and future opportunities for using ICT in urban sustainability planning.

Sustainable Urbanism Revisited

At a time of uncontrolled globalization in which serious environmental problems are threatening cities and their inhabitants, as cultural integrity is constantly under attack and many cities lack socially inclusive and responsive environments, there is an urgent need for a radical shift towards a holistic strategy for sustainable urbanism combining ecological sustainability and socio-cultural sustainability. This calls for sensitivity to the traditional urbanism and impact of global ideas, practices, and technologies on local social and cultural practices. In line with these, this chapter aims to establish an environmentally sound and human friendly framework for sustainable urbanism. In this context, the study firstly provides a conceptual understanding of sustainable urbanism and a critical review of its philosophical and practical framework; secondly, it provides an assessment of contemporary approaches to sustainable urbanism; thirdly, the chapter analyses the traditional Turkish (Ottoman) city which provides valuable clues for sustainable development, and discusses possible research directions that could help promote the concept of sustainable urbanism.

Transition Model

Peak oil and climate change are two of greatest challenges facing humanity at the beginning of 21st century. They are urging humanity to re-think and consider changing on many personal, social, ecological, and economic fronts. Transition and resilience are key concepts initiating this change to prepare communities to forthcoming challenging times. Transition Movement and the claimed model behind it, Transition Model, have been established to overcome these challenges by transforming communities and settlements. Transition Movement is a community-driven initiative aiming to build ecology friendly resilient community and settlements. Its fast spread has sparked the attention of policy makers, academicians, and practitioners. Relatively little research has been done, however, to understand the dynamics of Transition Movement. Here, I focus on transition and resilience concepts in relation to socio-ecological and socio-technical systems, investigate Transition Movement and Transition Model, and analyze their characteristics and fundamental processes. I classify Transition Movement both as a socio-ecological and a socio-technical system. I claim that Transition Model is not a model but rather a methodology. I question its validity and sufficiency as a methodology and point the improvement areas from systems point of view. I introduce two, non-existent but necessary systems to adapt: a feedback mechanism, and an improvement cycle based on projects and resilient indicators. Finally, I comment on the future of Transition Model and suggest areas for further research. The chapter is concluded with the question how Transition Model can be adapted by the cities, transforming them into resilient communities, ready for the ecological and economical challenges.

Urban Environmental Applications of GIScience

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are computer-based systems used to store and manipulate geographical data, and perform spatial analysis. These systems serve to reveal the patterns, relationships, and anomalies, or sometimes invisible characteristics of the geographical data in various applications. While the term “GIS” indicates an object or tool, GIScience, the acronym for Geographic Information Science, covers a broader context of methodologies behind spatial data analysis. Among different application areas of GIS, “environmental monitoring and modeling” plays a significant role in the development of the very first GIS in the world-The Canada Geographic Information Systems (CGIS) in the mid-1960s. After almost 40 years of history, significant changes and challenges took place in the geographic information research agenda. This chapter will point out some of the vital tools and methods used in GIScience (including GIS, remote sensing and 3D modeling) to grasp issues of our urban environments. With recent technological advances that facilitate our understanding of the environment; it is more evident that the vision of more “livable” cities is not too far but not easy as well.