Urbanization

Meaning the developments and changes that are occurring in urban spaces, urbanization is one of the main working areas of MMU as it is one of the reasons of the existence of the local governments.

Accelerated by the rise of industry and modernism, urbanization continues to grow as the vast majority of the world’s population is piling up in cities which offer multi-layered forms of production and consumption even it is very risky in terms of the use of their resources and which are in need of solutions at both global and local scales. Urbanization policies that affect all areas of life such as housing, commerce, finance, production and service, employment, public spaces, transportation, education, health, and arts are today based on the sustainable development of cities in terms of livability for everyone and of availability of resources. Particularly the Marmara Region is an example of a complex structure for which the dynamics of the city-region are discussed with a mega-city like Istanbul and cities with different geographical and production identities located in its vicinity. It is also required today to define the dynamics of urbanization in terms of the networks that cities established independently of their geographical location thanks to the strengthening of relations at regional scale and of technological infrastructures.

In this sense, research, publication studies and training programs for implementers are created on priority problem areas in cities in terms of ecological, social and financial aspects, especially for cities of different scales in the Marmara Region, and the potentials that need to be developed. Works are underway to identify and collect data to ensure the flow of information and policy production in the field of urbanization, and the examples of good practice are conveyed to local governments by following up different urbanization processes in other cities of the world.