Speaker
Description
Sustainability can be summarized as planned consumption and production that considers environmental, social, and economic factors to improve the quality of life for present and future generations. Given that it addresses issues ranging from the evaluation of underground and surface resources to waste management, this approach is highly multifaceted. The concept of sustainable development emerged in response to the negative environmental impacts caused by industrialization since the second half of the 20th century and remains a central issue on global agendas. However, current data indicates that the goals set forth have not been achieved. With increasing environmental degradation, global climate change has now reached a crisis level. As these ecological issues have evolved into physical, economic, and social challenges, urban priorities have also shifted.
The resilience of cities, especially in response to sudden, unprepared, and severe natural disasters, has gained increasing significance. While long-term sustainable development goals remain important, their implementation has become an ideal rather than a reality. Over the past two decades, urban resilience has become a key concept in planning agendas, defined as a system's ability to prepare for threats, absorb sudden changes, recover from unexpected disruptions, and adapt to permanent stress or destructive events.
In this study, the coastal settlement of Zonguldak in northwestern Turkey, with a population of approximately 588,000, was selected as the case study. In addition to its numerous unique environmental values, Zonguldak has been dramatically affected by landslides, floods, earthquakes, avalanches, and mining-related sudden subsidence (known as "tasman") within a single year, as recorded by the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) in 2021. With a disaster recurrence frequency of less than five years, Zonguldak ranks among the top five cities in Turkey and can be referred to as a "city of disasters."
In this study, nonlinear canonical correlation analysis was used to simultaneously evaluate natural disaster data, climate change data, environmental pollution data, infrastructure data, and socio-economic data. The findings reveal a chaotic situation characterized by interwoven problems in Zonguldak. An analysis of upper- and lower-scale plans prepared for the city indicates that sustainable development goals have not been achieved, and problem areas have intensified due to disaster management challenges. Despite being a planned city even before the Republican era (before 1923), it has failed to achieve sustainability goals through planning.
On an international level, in 2015, United Nations member states agreed on the "2030 Agenda" with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), calling on the world to end poverty and protect the planet. However, a report published in 2023 indicated not only a lack of progress toward these goals but also a regression compared to four years ago. The United Nations warned that future crises could exacerbate vulnerabilities, undermine previous achievements, and make development more unsustainable unless immediate, transformative, and realistic adjustments are made. According to a detailed trend analysis covering the years 2020-2023, no goal outlined in the SDGs has yet been fully achieved. Indicators such as ending poverty, promoting health and well-being, fostering decent work and economic growth, ensuring quality education, providing clean and accessible energy, promoting responsible consumption and production, and strengthening peace, justice, and institutions have shown regression rather than progress (United Nations, 2023).
In conclusion, both internationally and locally, 2025 is increasingly viewed as a late date to set long-term goals for the planet. The large-scale disasters caused by human-induced disruption of the natural balance have become more frequent. Therefore, without abandoning sustainability policies, setting rapid intervention targets focused on reducing urban vulnerabilities and enhancing disaster resilience is particularly important for developing countries like Turkey, which have high economic fragility.
References
-AFAD. (2021). Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Plan (IRAP) (2021). https://zonguldak.afad.gov.tr/kurumlar/zonguldak.afad/Genel/ZONGULDAK_IRAP.pdf accessed: 11.10.2024
-United Nations. (2023). Global Sustainable Development Report 2023: Times of crisis, times of change: Science for accelerating transformations to sustainable development, United Nations, New York, 2023, https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/2023-09/FINAL%20GSDR%202023-Digital%20-110923_1.pdf accessed: 11.10.2024
| Keywords | Urban Resilience; Sustainable Urban Planning; Disaster Risk Reduction; Zonguldak; Turkey |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
