The 22nd seminar of the "Istanbul Urban Studies" seminar series organized by the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of Istanbul Medeniyet University moderated by Res.Asst. H.Aysun ÖZKAN YAZAR was held online on Wednesday, 27th October 2021. At the seminar Özge Müberra AKYÜZ (Msc.) urban planner from IMM (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality), presented her study titled "Koruma Amaçlı İmar Planı Yapımında Yeni Bir Yöntem: Adalar'da Katılımcı Planlama" (A New Method to Make Conservation Development Plan: Participatory Planning in Adalar).
AKYÜZ giving information in her presentation about the context and implementation process of planning studies carried by IMM mentioned that citizens, planning experts and policy makers should be considered carefully to apply participatory planning principles. She also said that planning studies carried on Adalar was designed by covering the issues like conservation, resistance–balance and innovativeness. She continued to her presentation with plan strategies and its complementary parts which are projects and actions. AKYÜZ evaluated the predicted results of traditional planning process for Adalar and compared them with participatory planning conducted. Ultimately, she claimed that participatory planning concept is superior in terms of caring different perspectives, common needs and healthier solutions. Participatory methods were also said to be better at providing public trust, transparency in governance, sense of belonging for citizens and enabling application of plans by public contribution.
In the later part of presentation, the role of urban planners in participatory planning was discussed. It was also discussed how difference of opinions of actors are solved and the political decision-making process is prevented from being biased for the benefit of powerful actors.
