An Investigation towards the development of ancient cities within the context of urban protection; research example is given for Tokat-Zile

Rapid increase rate of population, migration from rural areas which increased considerablyduring recent years in our country have caused unplanned growth of urban areas, destructionof traditional structure in the urban centers, increase of values of lands, construction ofmultistory buildings, and disappearance of historical entities one by one despite all the legalrestrictions. In this context, the conceptual definitions related to the historical urban areashave been made in this study, with the importance of conservation being emphasized, andrehabilitation, refunctioning, problems in historical environment and conservation policiesaround the conservation-planning relations have been studied. Applied examples in Turkeyand Europe designed to conserve the historical urban structure arranged in human scale whichreflect the social, cultural and economic structure of past civilizations, the characters of thesettlements, planning targets - criteria and results reflected onto the physical environmenthave been examined.Historical urban structure of Zile, the new settlement for the people immigrating from ruralareas, is about to turn into a zone of collapse increasingly due to unconscious behavior ofinhabitants, their economic conditions and undeveloped conservation policies. The historicalurban structure of Zile has been studied based on the data obtained from the applied examples,and the city has been analyzed in historical, economic, social and physical perspectives and asa result, it has been tried to raise recommendations which may revitalize the urban structure,unearth and reuse the existing values.Keywords: Historical urban structure, conservation, refunctioning, historical urban structure ofZile