Page 67 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 2

Hayriye Eşbah Tunçay

Sustainable transport corridors also include rail systems. Creating a green
corridor from meadows with a green and permeable approach along the
tram corridors operating on the surface in the cities reduces the negative
effects of these infrastructures on the city (Figure 4). The carbon emission by
these vehicles is much lower compared to the one caused by regular vehicle
traffic. With this environmental stance, trams offer a more sustainable means
of transport. These corridors go through different urban textures that are
elevated in certain points. When not maintained properly, the openings at
the lower part of these transportation structures in the city may harbor various
criminal acts. However, it is possible to cover these unused areas with plants
that do not pose any safety risks and enrich these places with the dry docks
created with harvested rainwater. The nature-based water management
approach contributes to the creation of aesthetic spaces as they transform
these urban openings to lively areas and lower crime rates. In this case, water
virtually becomes a means to functionalize the city in a multi-faceted way.

4. Urban Streams

Urban streams are important for urban sustainability as they contribute
to environmental balance, ecological unity, cultural heritage, economic and
social activities and the aesthetic performances of cities. For this reason, when
increased urbanization and climate change are taken into consideration, the
sustainable planning, design and management of urban streams has become
an important issue around the world. Population increase, tourism and
commercial demands as well as the pressure of urbanization have brought
about dramatic physical effects on urban stream corridors in the last thirty
years. These circumstances led to the invasion of areas in flood basins by city
blocks and the negligence of urban streams in Turkiye in favor of improving
the rail systems, railways, and highway infrastructures. As a result, the urban
stream corridors, which constitute a cultural heritage accumulated through
centuries of local ecologies and traditional life activities, have turned into
concrete tunnels suffering from pollution, and lacking ecological and aesthetic
unity. To have a sustainable urban stream corridor in the cities of our country,
there is need for a comprehensive approach that transfer landscape planning,
design and management process to existing operations and regulations. This
is important not only for the preservation of human welfare and ecological
and cultural values, but also for the improvement of climate change and
resilience processes of our cities as well as adaptation to EU in terms of
environmental issues. It is important for official institutions to handle the city
with an engineering approach only. Additionally, breaking their resistance

53 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate