The İstanbul Planning Agency Vision 2050 Office, a part of the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB), has completed its urban analysis report for the city. It concludes that 70% of Istanbul’s population lives in earthquake zones.
The report also revealed that around 72 billion Turkish liras (TL) in taxes collected by the government since the İzmit earthquake of 1999 have not been spent on building reinforcements in the most risky regions and districts of İstanbul.
According to a previous report of the İBB, the most risky districts and neighbourhoods in Istanbul in terms of earthquakes are: Avcılar, Fatih, Zeytinburnu, Esenler, Küçükçekmece, Tuzla and Beylikdüzü.
The report also revealed that Istanbul has lost 25% of its agricultural land in the past twenty five years. If the ‘Canal İstanbul’ project is realised, the agricultural land loss is likely to rise to 40%.
The report confirms that the city has lost 98.6 square kilometres of its forests and 143.3 square kilometres of agricultural land due to ‘mega-projects’. It was also revealed that 40% of Istanbul’s 690 kilometre coastal length remains inaccessible to the public.
