Revitalisation of the Main Street of a Distinguished Old Neighbourhood in Istanbul

This study investigates the revitalisation of the main street of Beyoglu, which was the westernised part of Istanbul's CBD in the nineteenth century. Beyoglu started to develop in the sixteenth century with the introduction of embassy buildings of European countries. Its development reached a climax during the nineteenth century as a result of increased European trade and cultural influence, remaining the most distinguished quarter of Istanbul until the 1960s. Thereafter, it suffered from decay, disinvestment and abandonment as a result of later suburbanisation and the multi-centre development of Istanbul. Revitalisation of the quarter started with the pedestrianisation of the main street. This study investigates the functional transformation and changes in land prices along the main street and surrounding neighbourhoods after the pedestrianisation. The factors which effect land prices are investigated by the use of regression analysis. According to the results, access to mass transit is the most important factor. Besides its convenient central-city location, with easy access to the city's main transportation arteries, no doubt also its distinguished architectural character contributed to its revitalisation. Although the revitalisation of the main street as a cooperative movement of public and private sectors, effectively, it was a market-lead restructuring afterwards. At the same time, international companies opening up stores reflecting the globalisation movement increased the attractiveness of the main street. The results of the study can be used by urban planners, policy-makers and investors for the revitalisation of other historical neighbourhoods in Istanbul and other cities. For further research, hierarchical analysis of spatial impacts of revitalisation areas is suggested.     

Spatial Analysis of Residential Prices in Istanbul

The purpose of this paper is to examine the spatial distribution of housing prices at the metropolitan and at the district level of Istanbul. At the metropolitan level, the most important factors which affect housing prices are sub-market, floor area and sea view. At the district level, housing prices vary from district to district according to locational, socio-economic and property characteristics. High-income sub-markets have higher coefficient of determinations and more significant variables than low-income sub-markets. Furthermore, the results suggest that planned districts have higher housing prices; thus, restructuring squatter areas and revitalizing inner city areas provide not only benefits to individuals but also higher tax revenues to the city.     

Urban Restructuring of Istanbul

After 1980s, the major cities of Turkey have experienced urban transformation process following the changes in the international trade policy and the impact of globalization. Istanbul took the highest amount of share from these transformation processes as being the most important economic, cultural and tourism centre and the most integrated centre to the world economy of the country. This paper describes Istanbul's historical development, investigates demographic profile and spatial distribution of employment and illustrates multi-centre development of the city. Decentralization of population and jobs illustrate the multi-centre development. Multi-centre development contributes to sustainable urban development which provides efficient energy use and prevents pollution. Istanbul having a long history, large population and being in a very strategic location between Asia and Europe greatly effected from globalization which is reflected in its transformation of urban structure and increased land values and thus offered great opportunities for the real estate investors. The role of Istanbul within the world hierarchy of cities is suggested for further research.     

Spatial Distribution of Shopping Malls and Analysis of their Trade Areas in Istanbul

This paper investigates the spatial distribution of shopping malls with respect to population and analyses the factors which effect the shopping mall location. According to the results, while the shopping mall space ratio is higher than population ratio in the intermediate zone, the reverse is true in the periphery. The relationships between the shopping mall space and income, population and distance to the central business district (CBD) of the locations are investigated by the use of regression analysis. The results reveal that income is the only factor affecting the location of shopping malls among those considered. In addition, three shopping malls from the inner and peripheral zones of Istanbul were analysed with respect to frequency to shopping centres and characteristics of trade areas. According to the results, the size of the catchment area of the shopping mall from the inner zone is larger then the peripheral ones due to higher accessibility with alternative transportation systems and supporting functions in its surrounding areas. The results fall within the concept of central place theory. Further research is suggested by expending the study to the other areas of the city with different characteristics to calculate their retail potential and their spatial implications.     

Transformation of Istanbul from a monocentric to a polycentric city

This paper investigates the spatial transformation of Istanbul from a monocentric to a polycentric city following the growth of the city and the development of its communications systems. The population and employment of peripheral districts have been growing rapidly, while those of the core districts have decreased. In addition, other variables are utilized for the identification of polycentres such as tax revenues from commercial enterprises, weighted average trip length and volume of mail. The results of the study reveal that the old CBD of Istanbul is no longer a dominant employment centre. Instead, a new CBD is emerging at the intersection of the radial and the peripheral highways, and subcentres are developing in some of the first and second ring districts. A major contributing factor to Istanbul's polycentric development has been the transformation of its economy into one that requires large modem office space and facilities for private automobiles—both of which are difficult to provide within the old CBD. In addition, the construction of peripheral highways has contributed to a pattern of polycentric development. Moreover, there is a desperate need for planned development of these subcentres in order to prevent their current haphazard development and to give a character to the peripheral areas of Istanbul.     

Research briefing

Although pharmacies play an important role in providing information and advice on health issues to lower income people in developing countries, the distribution of urban pharmacies is not balanced with respect to population distribution in some of the districts of Istanbul. This situation can severely limit the accessibility of pharmacy services to the people with lower socio‐economic background. A multiple regression analysis is used in order to find out the factors which affect the spatial distribution of pharmacies in Istanbul. The number of pharmacies in the districts considered is taken as the dependent variable and the number of hospital beds, physicians, population, employment, income, number of educated people and distance to the CBD are taken as independent variables. According to the results, the population of the districts and the number of educated people, physicians and hospital beds are the most important factors affecting the location of pharmacies in Istanbul. The other variables are not found significant in affecting the location of pharmacies at the metropolitan level. Suggestions are made for better distribution of pharmacies and for further research.     

Impact of Characteristics of Origin and Destination Provinces on Migration: 1995–2000

During the second half of the twentieth century, internal migration in Turkey played an important role in the redistribution of the population, the concentration of capital in major cities, and the expansion and restructuring of metropolitan areas. To be able to explain the results of this restructuring process, it is important to investigate the provincial differences in migration determinants. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of the characteristics of origin and destination provinces and the distances between them on internal migration at the end of the twentieth century in Turkey using global and local forms of regression analysis. Therefore, there are two main parts of the study. The first part includes analyzing the in-migration globally. Second, the spatial distribution of the out-migration with respect to determinants among all the provinces of Turkey is investigated. According to the results, in-migrants are correlated with the characteristics of provinces such as industrial employment, service sector employment and number of university students. Out-migration is investigated for each province according to the aforementioned characteristics of the destination provinces and the distances between them. The results of the study reveal that there are locally varying relationships in out-migration in Turkey.     

Spatial Analysis of Physicians' Offices with Respect to Population and Hospital Beds in Istanbul

Maldistribution of medical staff is a subject of criticism in many developing countries. This paper investigates the spatial distribution of physicians' offices with respect to population and hospital beds in Istanbul. The spatial distribution of physicians' offices is investigated with respect to socio-economic and locational characteristics of the districts. The results show that only a few districts benefit from an amazing growth in the concentration of physicians' offices while the periphery of the city, where mostly low-income people live, has a lower physician/population ratio than the metropolitan average. In addition, the spatial distribution of physicians offices with respect to population and hospital beds is investigated by the use of regression analysis within time. According to the results, while there was some relationship between the physicians' offices and the hospital beds in the 1980s, there was no relationship with population or hospital bed distribution in the 1990s. Increasing the number of factors which affect the distribution of physicians and testing the model in other metropolitan areas in order to obtain more general results are suggested for further research.     

Spatial Analysis of Library System and Proposal for New Libraries in Istanbul

Over the past several decades, the rapid growth of Istanbul has resulted in a tremendous gap between the need and provision of social facilities. Growing societal and community needs in the information age and the desire to become a member of the European Union (EU) have stimulated public officials to upgrade the existing libraries and to increase their numbers so as to reach European standards. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the spatial distribution of existing libraries and to propose new ones where they are needed. Volume is the most important and the population of the districts is the second important factor to affect library use. Thus, it is crucial to support library construction, especially in the periphery of the city for future development, and to improve the level of service of the existing libraries.