Investigation of negative impacts of increasing ship traffic in the Gulf of Izmit

Maritime transportation has a big role in world's trade as well as in Turkey. Turkey's foreign trade depends mainly on maritime transportation. One of the node points that has a huge role in outstanding logistic is Izmit Bay which is located in the Kocaeli Province. Due to its geographical location, the city Kocaeli became one of the leading industrial center of Turkey. As part of the industries such as petroleum, automotive, textile, pharmaceutical, chemical, infrastructure, food, iron and steel, comprising 61 million tons of various types of cargo are handled by 43 port facilities in different sizes in the bay area which corresponds %15,86 of total cargo handled in Turkish ports according to statistics of Turkish Chamber of Shipping which consequently result in significant amount of maritime traffic activities in Izmit Bay. Based on Eurostat statistics 2015, Izmit Port in the region of Izmit Bay, is the 8th largest port in Europe by means of that carried cargo ports, on the basis gross weight of goods handled (in terms of million tons). Since, Izmit Bay is very preferable by a variety of industries for maritime transportation, many regulations on safety of shipping traffic are carried out. However, stemming from shipping traffic is still a major problem and many regulations and solutions must be considered. Here in this study, possible solutions for this major problem related with stemming and congestion caused by shipping traffic in Izmit Bay are discussed. After discussion, possible solutions to the problems are put forward for further investigations.