Environmental, Social, and Economic Indicators of Urban Land Use Conflicts: Evidence From Istanbul Metropolitan Area

Environmental, Social, and Economic Indicators of Urban Land Use Conflicts: Evidence From Istanbul Metropolitan Area

Ufuk Fatih Kucukali (Istanbul Aydin University, Turkey) and Lütfiye Kuşak (Istanbul Aydin University, Turkey)
Copyright: © 2018 |Pages: 24
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-5646-6.ch048

Abstract

Due to the recent increase in population, urbanization in developing countries progressed to the outer fringes of the city and resulted in ecological and social problems. Especially land use conflicts resulting in such phenomena are characterized by pressures on the environment caused by ever-increasing anthropogenic factors subject to unplanned settlement, notably in heavily populated metropolitan areas. Despite the fact that Turkey is one of the countries, which this conflict intensively occurred. Studies on compliance of land use in Turkey with the zoning plans mainly consider socioeconomic indicators. This, in return, raises concerns over applicability and the rationality of the plans created. Three main indicators: environmental indicators, social indicators and economic indicators were selected and then estimated to retrieve the relative weights of the indicators was determined using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) pairwise comparison method. Weighted linear combination (WLC) was carried out in the study.
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Background

Since the urban environment is characterized by deep complexity, indicators are handy and useful expression to evaluate environmental data. In generally, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and European Environment Agency (EEA), indicator definitions are preferred to environmental studies. EPA has defined environmental indicators describing the characteristics of the physical environment and evaluating the form of numeric values (EPA 2011). In addition, indicators are defined as the evaluation of the effects according to the parameters due to anthropogenic effects occurring in the environment and ecosystem by EEA. (EEA 2010).

As it is evident from the definitions, indicators compare references or normal values taking into account their correlation with the resilience of nature (Cabell & Oelofse 2012; Passeri et al. 2013) and environment and reveal a simplified version of reality (EEA 2010). In the context of anthropogenic pressures created on environment and urban ecosystem in the intensive urbanization process, environmental and socio economic indicators help to evaluate environmental effects (Dale & Beyeler, 2001; Kasanko et al. 2006) to compare various scenarios suggested by such environmental effects (White et al. 2000; Barredo et al. 2003; Barredo et al. 2004; Petrov et al. 2011), to share the findings with the public (Banville et al. 1998; Munda 2004; Li et al. 2009; Jaeger et al. 2010), and to contribute to decision-making processes (De Marchi et al. 2000).

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