Devastation caused by earthquakes in February 2023 in the south-eastern region of Turkey underscored the need for better urban risk management systems and protective governance. Immense destruction across cities and towns despite the existence of regulatory frameworks to guide construction and urban development, pointed to the need for a new urban risk management approach in Turkey that is based on a multi-stakeholder awareness raising and capacity building, as well as a multi-hazard approach for risks that are often complex and compounding. Indeed, while Turkey is highly prone to seismic hazards, it is also increasingly facing climate change impacts including heavy rains, heat waves, and drought conditions. This requires that risk reduction and resilience building projects in the country take a more comprehensive urban risk management approach and use integrated planning that also takes into consideration climate adaptation.
The Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD) in collaboration with the Columbia Global Center in Istanbul is launching the project Building back better in Hatay, Turkey: Co-designing a multi-stakeholder, multi-risk informed urban development approach. This project led by CSUD’s Jacqueline Klopp, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation’s (GSAPP) Ebru Gencer, and International Research Institute for Climate and Society’s (IRI) Andrew Kruczkiewicz, aims to support dialogues and collaborative research in Hatay, Turkey towards co-developing a comprehensive, multi-risk-informed urban planning and development approach while including the needs of the most vulnerable populations, such as those of the refugees and women and children, for building back better. This proposed project aims to work closely with Turkish partners including the Faculty of Architecture, Mustafa Kemal University to co- develop this comprehensive urban risk management approach that takes into account potential multiple shocks and stresses, including shocks from geophysical and climatological hazards, as well as stresses rising from physical systems, governance and decision-making, and socio-economic processes (Gencer 2020 - Resilience Learning Module; Kruzckiewicz et. al. 2021). Given the historical and cultural importance of Hatay province in Turkey, the project will give special importance to multi-cultural context including heritage of the built environment and the social environment.
Starting in September 2024, the project will use a collaborative, interdisciplinary and multi- stakeholder approach including extensive support of and engagement with local universities and other key partners. The main activities of the project will include a) co-developing a multi-stakeholder and a multi-risk informed urban planning and development approach for building back better, b) undertaking relevant analyses and studies including impact-based climate forecasting to support this approach to the extent of data availability; c) an educational studio and workshops to integrate this knowledge across disciplines and silos to produce preliminary co-designed locally targeted principles and proposals for building back better.
While working to understand both vertical and horizontal contexts, a number of selected sites in Hatay will be the focus. Through workshops and continuous academic exchanges especially with the Faculty of Architecture, Mustafa Kemal University, we aim to build joint capacity development. Activities include an inception trip of principal Columbia University investigators in November 2024, GSAPP Urban Planning (UP) Studio in Spring 2025 semester and its field trip in March 2025 (led by co-pi Ebru Gencer) and engagement of GSAPP UP students with their local partners in Turkey, and a final dissemination workshop in December 2025. Outputs include both a research report for publication and more digestible policy briefs in Turkish. We also aim to leverage this seed funding to build a longer-term exchange and research collaboration.
This project is currently searching for a Student Project Associate- see the opportunity here.