Page 152 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 2

The Resilient City Of The Future:
Esenler Nar Innovation District

With natural environment elements such as rain gardens and green areas,
we aim to prevent potential floods. Through the use of rainwater collection
infrastructure systems, we aim to create water grids that can absorb rainwater,
store it, and reuse it in green areas. The solar panels on the roofs of the
superblocks and urban agricultural applications allow horizontal and vertical
green envelope systems. In the project area, distributed energy sources, i.e.,
sharing of clean electricity among superblock inhabitants will help increase
the energy resiliency of the city.
According to the official gazette dated July 7th, 2021 and numbered 31621,
Türkiye ratified the international agreement and announced its commitment
to 2053 zero carbon goal (International Agreement, 2021). Through the use of
sustainable infrastructures and innovative technologies, and the use of clean
and renewable energy sources, the NAR Innovation District aims to showcase
how this ambitious goal can be realized.

Results

The global climate and environmental crises affect urban areas to a great
extent. Urban spaces increase the effects of climate and environmental crisis,
which mutually affect each other. Today, the discipline of spatial planning
focuses on creating quick responses to current and potential crises as well
as adaptation and improving the resiliency of the city. It is essential to adopt
innovative approaches to mitigate risk factors caused by climate change, and
to develop new policies that can respond to spatial and social vulnerabilities
of cities in the future.
The city of Istanbul is in particular vulnerable due to its geopolitical location,
socioeconomic structure and limited natural resources. The NAR Innovation
District can act as a testing ground to tackle these significant challenges.
It presents a resilient and durable urban living area with smart system
applications, integrated spatial organization, flexible spatial uses, smart
grid infrastructure system, circular waste management system, eco-friendly
transport modes, strong-transparent and technology-based governance
network and is prepared for disasters such as earthquakes, floods, etc.
Supported by the Turkish Industry and Technology Ministry and the Ministry of
Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, the NAR Innovation District
is designed to serve as a data source to incubate new smart city technologies
and to provide testing infrastructure for autonomous vehicles. The pedestrian-
centric NAR Innovation District, accommodates 40.000 people and is a smart
resilient city pilot study.

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