Orta Ölçekli Kentler İçin Arazi Kullanım Planlamasında Sürdürülebilir Gelişme Göstergeleri: Niğde Örneği

Abstract

Bu çalışmada; küresel bir amacı ifade eden sürdürülebilir gelişmenin başarılması için optimum yerleşim büyüklüğünün orta ölçekli kentler olduğu tespitiyle çalışılmıştır. Bu nedenle yerel yönetimler sürdürülebilirlik sürecinde önemli role sahip olmaktadırlar. Yerel yönetimler tarafından idare edilecek arazi kullanım planlaması da bu ölçekteki kentler için planlamanın en etkili aracı olabilmektedirler. Bu bilgiler ışığında; çalışmanın amacı: sürdürülebilir gelişme göstergelerinin arazi kullanım planlaması yolu ile ölçülebilirliği ve uygulanabilirliğinin sağlamasında, yerel yönetimin konu ile ilgili farkındalık düzeyinin önemini sınamaktır. Bu doğrultuda ileri sürülen hipotezimiz orta ölçekli ve küresel yatırımlarla hızlı büyüme gösteren kentlerin arazi kullanım planlarının, sürdürülebilir gelişme göstergelerini karşılamada, yerel yönetimlerin bilgi, algı ve beklentilerine bağlı olarak gelişmişlik gösterebileceği yönündedir. Araştırma alanı yaklaşık 110.000 şehir merkezi nüfuslu Türkiye’nin iç Anadolu bölgesinde tarihi Kapadokya Yöresi’nde bulunan orta ölçekli kenti Niğde İli’dir. Araştırmanın ilk aşamasında yürürlükte olan üst ölçekli planlar sürdürülebilir gelişme göstergelerine bağlı olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırmanın ikinci aşamasında ise yerel yönetim yetkililerinin üst ölçekli arazi kullanım planlarında sürdürülebilir gelişme ile ilgili bilgi, algı ve beklentileri yarı yapılandırılmış derinlemesine mülakat yöntemiyle ölçülmüştür. Araştırmanın bulgularına göre; Niğde'nin, arazi kullanım planındaki sürdürülebilir gelişme göstergelerine erişimi yetersizdir. Kentin yerel yönetiminin, sürdürülebilir gelişme göstergeleri konusunda algı, bilgi ve beklenti düzeyinde de bu yetersizlik görülmektedir. Kapodokya bölgesindeki bir orta ölçekli kentin arazi kullanım planlamasında, sürdürülebilir gelişme göstergelerinin ölçülebilirliğinin sağlanabilmesi için, kentin yerel yönetiminin sürdürülebilirlik konusunda kapasitesinin gelişmesi gerekmektedir. Gelişen farkındalık ile arazi kullanım planlarının revizyona ihtiyacı olduğu söylenebilmektedir. Hipotezde öne sürüldüğü gibi; özellikle, orta ölçekli kentlerin arazi kullanım planlaması yolu ile sürdürülebilirlik göstergelerine ulaşmasında; yerel yönetim düzeyinde algı, bilgi ve beklenti düzeyi önem taşımaktadır.

In recent years, the globalization process accelerated by technological and economic developments in the world and in Turkey has brought about a rapid urban development and transformation process. In spite of positive impacts of the aforementioned transformation, flawed policies has produced unplanned cities with no identity, little infrastructure and unhealthy environments. As a consequence these cities cannot meet the physical, socio-cultural and physiological needs of their inhabitants. Due to widespread awareness caused by the negative impact of these unfit living environments, sustainability has become a subject of interest on various platform. Domination passion of humankind over the world led them to make various interferences to the nature and, as a result of this, to the disturbance of ecological balance, and even to the reach of ecological threat until unrecoverable dimensions. However, continuity of human being will be enabled with the providing of ecological continuity. Today, the sayings about ecological sustainability increasingly come up in every field. Therefore, it is arisen the requirement to associate such an important issue with our professional area. Although physical planning is from its very nature a continuous process, the existing planning systems and concepts have became largely insufficient and inadequate so far as to meet present expectations and requirements. The urgent task should be an innovative search of new ways for more effective planning methods under present and future conditions. This thesis is supported by experience gained from various projects and by results of research in the domains of organisation and management, political sciences and empirical pyschology. The need for effective and comprehensive planning is more obvious than ever. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and its working document Agenda 21 recognize the need for promoting sustainable human settlements development and formed the basis for the organization of HABITAT II 1996 conference. The matter is rightly considered to be very urgent. At the global level the differences in living conditions among nations, regions and people seem to increase in whatever respect it is measured. The current state of development and planning is marked by complexity of issues, uncertainty and rapid changes. After a decline of planning and research in the 1980s a steady resurgence is now manifested in 2000s. Some key tendencies are: -impacts of globalisation, integration of economies and competition -a search for environmental sustainability -attempts to combat social inequalities, unemployment and to accommodate migration -a search for more participatory and collaborative urban governance, emphasizing new partnerships -emphasis on decentralization, devolution and support for local government -continued attemps to eradicate poverty. The better management of land resources is essential for sustainability and for improving the quality of life in cities and towns. It is also one of the keys to meeting commitments on Agenda 21 and the Habitat Agenda, and other international obligations on, for example, climate change and biodiversity. Internationally and within the EU there is widespread agreement of the need to develop integrated strategies to tackle urban sprawl, involving all levels of government. The use of indicators is becoming an increasingly common method of assessing the quality of life, health, or sustainability of a community. As will be discussed, the meaning of the word can vary, but generally indicators are signs that evaluate the progress of a defined geographic area. Most comprehensive indicator projects assess a community through three different, but interrelated lenses: environment, economy, and society. Sometimes a project may place a particular emphasis on one of these three categories, which leads the project to be more of an environmental, economic, or quality of life assessment. Sustainable development, sustainability indicators and several subjects related to it were studied many times in urban planning literature. However, studies about turning the "sustainability" what is an an abstract conception into the concrete conception are limited. Sustainable development, an objective of urban planning, is difficult to put into practice. Data to monitor sustainable land use management is often lacking, particularly in developing countries. This study is to target to achieve the meaningful results by presenting the sustainability term more clearly and harmonizing it with the subjects about urban planning. In this paper, sustainable development which is stated as a global objective was studied with the determination of optimal city size as a medium-sized city to achieve it. It is known that local governments have a significant role for sustainability process. Land use planning that is managed by local governments can be the most effective tool of planning for medium-sized cities. In the light of this information, the aim of this study is to examine the importance of awareness degree about the subject of local governments for providing measurability and applicability of sustainable development indicators by the way of land use planning. Our hypothesis is that the medium-sized cities' land use plans can make a progress related to the local goverments' knowledge, perceptions and expectations about sustainable development indicators. The case study area Nigde City Centre is a medium-sized city with a population of approximately 110,000 people and is located in historical Cappadocia territory of the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. In the first phase of the study; current upper scale plans were evaluated by connecting them to the sustainable development indicators for Nigde. In the second phase of the study, local government authorities' knowledge, perceptions and expectations about sustainable development at land use planning were measured by the semi-structured in-depth interview method. According to the findings of the research ; Nigde has inadequate access to sustainable development indicators of land use plans. And this inadequacy is seen at the city's local authorities’ level of perception, knowledge and expectations about sustainable development indicators, too. Local government needs to make progress about sustainability to provide measurability of sustainable development indicators for land use plan of a medium-sized city located in Cappadocia territory. It can be said that land use plans' need for revision with the developing awareness. As suggested in the hypothesis; level of perception, knowledge and expectation are significant at the local government level to achieve sustainability indicators by the way of land use planning especially in medium-sized cities.