Coastal management in İzmir bay for a sustainable future

ABSTRACT Beside their historical, cultural and aesthetic features, the coasts that connect the seas and lands are the parts of the nature having natural, ecological and economical features. The coasts, which were seen as strategic points in every period of the history, are today faced with serious usage problems. The increasing pressure of the population day by day, accelerates the process of the demolition that appears in the coasts and coasts are increasingly loosing their natural resource features especially as a result of irregular construction and pollution. All these pressures on the coasts and misuses arose the need of effective management of these areas. The coast management mentality, which was proposed for this purpose, states an integrated management. In other words, a management is desired that all the parties, which are effected from the usage of the coastal areas, join to the decision taking process for the management of these areas. One of the most important coastal areas of Turkey, which has 8333 km coast length, are the coasts of the Bay of Izmir. The Bay of Izmir has been subject to intensive usage in Izmir, which has become an attraction center by the industrial movements especially done in 1960s. The wastes that have been discharged for years, exposed the bay waters into intensive pollution, in which once fishing and swimming were being done. The Bay of Izmir, which has a self cleaning feature in a environment of no charging of wastes, has been seen as a point of throwing away the residential and industrial wastes up to now., has been filled senselessly with the " public benefit scenarios" and the bay could not find the chance to use this feature. The opening partly of the Izmir Great Canal Project by the January 2000, which wasn't finished because of the financial problems, was an important step to stop the pollution of the bay. However, the success of this VIIproject depends on providing an effective management and control by the responsible institutions. The coastal management problem still maintains its importance for the coasts of the Bay of Izmir. All kind of activities done for the coasts of Izmir Bay, have been subject to great legal and administrative fights. Both money spend for the senseless projects and the lost time by the long lasting fights, caused extinction of the inadequate city sources. Thus, not to live these kind of problems parties that live in Izmir and are effected from the urban projects, should have a mutual and helpful interaction with in an "integrated" management model. The providing administrative functionalism in the Izmir coasts, depends on a co-ordination that shall be done during the project stage. This kind of approach will prevent the extravagance in urban resources. Because, each money spend for Izmir, is the city's own money. The urban people wants their money to be used for right and useful projects. It is obvious that, the population of Izmir, which exceeds three million people today, is going to generate a bigger pressure on the bay coasts. The task for us for being in Izmir is, to be a follower of the every step that is taken for Izmir, to sign the projects that really can be useful for the public together with the central and local governments, academic and scientific institutions, civilian public institutions and with the responsibility of local public situated in the center of the problem. Habitat and Agenda 21 's slogan concepts, "active participation", "local responsibility", "partnership in solution" will be start points in our every activities about the city of Izmir. In this study, importance of coasts about sustainability, threats to usage of coasts, administrative, legal and institutional problems of coast management has been explained, and then the subject has been examined on the scale of Izmir Bay, and also a management model which is based on mutual interaction among aforesaid actors has been tried to be constituted. VIII