Large-scale projects and land value changes in peripheral residential development in Istanbul

The concept of resilience, which is extensively discussed in urban planning, reflects the idea of the city as a complex system that is exposed to the unforeseen effects of, either planned or uncontrolled, development. The current study aims to define vulnerable areas in the urban periphery in the case of Istanbul, Turkey, and discusses how these areas can be prioritized to be adapted or transformed encountering large-scale projects. Assessing the resiliency or vulnerability of urban areas can be measured in terms of dynamic degree of land value changes and type of land uses. Istanbul, the focus of this study, is struggling with uncertainty in planning and faces challenges on adaptability to large-scale projects. In the current paper study, one of the peripheral neighborhoods in Istanbul, Gokturk, which is exposed to large-scale projects, is investigated in terms of its degree of vulnerability to unforeseen effects, via changes of land value and land use development pattern since 2003. The results indicate spatial variances of vulnerability degrees in subareas which must be reassessed in order to adapt urban policies and to increase resilience to unforeseen effects of these large-scale projects.