7 districts that must be urgently transformed before the Istanbul earthquake have been announced!

The Istanbul Planning Agency (IPA) has published its report on the city's reserve and risky areas. According to the report, it is stated that there is a need for five times more transformation than what has been declared in Büyükçekmece, Güngören, Kartal, Küçükçekmece, Pendik, Tuzla, and Zeytinburnu.

The report included the following information:

"The Law on the Transformation of Areas Under Disaster Risk, numbered 6306 and dated 2012, is used as an important tool in urban transformation. The work carried out within this scope brings with it discussions regarding 'risky areas', 'reserve areas', and priority transformation areas in the law. Finally, these discussions have returned to the agenda following the amendments to Law No. 6306, which were published in the Official Gazette and entered into force on November 9, 2023. The report titled 'An Evaluation of the Concepts of Reserve Area and Risky Area in Urban Transformation' sheds light on these concepts while also examining the practices in Istanbul.

According to the report:

- Since the date Law No. 6306 came into effect, 70 risky areas, 152 reserve building areas, and approximately 84,000 risky structures have been declared in Istanbul.

- It is stated that the declared risky areas mostly consist of areas that are publicly owned, generally contain single or two-story irregular structures, or are areas with high rent value.

- In the last 11 years, only 84,000 of the 800,000 buildings in Istanbul built before 2000 have been transformed.

- There is a need for five times more transformation than what has been declared in Büyükçekmece, Güngören, Kartal, Küçükçekmece, Pendik, Tuzla, and Zeytinburnu, which must be addressed as a priority. In the Tuzla district alone, there is a need for urban transformation in an area 38 times larger than what the Ministry has declared.

2 MILLION POPULATION INCREASE ACCORDING TO ANALYSIS

- Regarding the issue of reserve areas, the Kanal Istanbul route is at the forefront of the most prominent and dangerous areas. According to statements made by the central government, a population increase of 500,000 is expected in the reserve areas on the Kanal Istanbul route, while according to the IPA's analysis, an increase of 2 million is projected.

- When the new regulation is examined in light of previous practices, it is assessed that problems regarding income inequality, dispossession, and the right to housing will deepen, and that steps will be taken toward creating financial resources rather than building disaster-resilient cities."