Sustainable urban planning in developed countries: Lessons for Turkey

Abstract

Publicly announced first in 1987, sustainable development became one of the most important subjects of academic, political, and philosophical debates of the 21st century. Based on the philosophy of respect to the needs of further generations, it is a model of continuing and balanced development. Implementation of sustainable development could be monitored best in urban areas as most of the world population is now living in cities. This concept also becomes very important in urban planning, as planning is almost the only tool to prevent an undesirable future for urban areas. It is acknowledged that sustainable urban development could only be achieved by sustainable urban plans. In this respect, urban planning tradition should change in line with sustainable urban development and all countries should adapt their planning traditions to sustainable urban development. In this article, examples of sustainable urban plans from the United States and Europe are presented as a model for sustainable urban planning in a developing country like Turkey. Common characteristics of these sustainable urban plans are determined in this article, in order to contribute to sustainable urban planning methods for Turkish cities and for the cities of other developing countries. © 2012 WIT Press.