Analysis and evaluation method proposal for spatial planning system against complex city systems the Turkey case

The issues that spatial planning is dealing with in especially metropolitan areas are getting more complex and increasing in number and genre. On the other side, planning fails to analyze urban systems accurately as long as it keeps its traditional rationality and fragmented planning approaches arise. As a response to that problem, complex systems theory has been the subject of planning discussions mostly after the 1990s all over the World referenced to other sciences like biology, physics, and mathematics, but not in Turkey yet. The Turkish planning system has not been examined and associated with this new concept. The complex systems approach, which focuses on the understanding existence of and the relationships between entities, creates debates on the need for a similar and new approach in planning. Besides, there are brand new and current planning approaches that are believed to come up with the same concern such as agent-based planning, communicational planning, strategic planning, etc. the development of technology has been very useful in developing such planning approaches. However, today it is a new topic for planning environment to deal with the issues within a system and to define these system components in the context of relations. Against the complex urban system, the mechanisms developed by each country's planning systems and the reactions it gives change within the framework of the country's own dynamics. This thesis aims to analyze the responses of spatial planning to the urban complex system by examining urban systems in the light of complex system theory. Throughout the thesis urban systems refer to metropolitan areas where complexity and dynamism increase the most. With this perspective, it is sought to answer the question of what approach should be developed as traditional planning approaches fail to meet the needs of metropolitan cities and follow the rapid change. In urban complex systems approach, the city is considered as a system comprising the components of spatial, organizational, social and temporal complex subsystems. The fluidity and continuity state of relationships among subsystems or entities raises the question of how the planning and the planner's attitude should be at this point. For this, the authors of complex systems find it necessary to understand the system and be involved in it which requires the analysis of each system. The original aspect and purpose of the thesis are that having defined urban complex systems with related concepts and components, it develops a method to analyze and compare different countries' spatial planning systems. Following that within the framework of the complex system, examining the post-1980 period of the Turkish planning system and determining the unresolved obstructed points of the existing and recreated issues of it will be rolled out. Additionally, an exploratory and explanatory planning mechanisms evaluation method was obtained by interpreting the information obtained by using qualitative methods to a large extent, and in the case of Turkey, a study was developed by including expert interviews with AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Method).