Criteria to ensure public access to waterfront in urban waterfronts "The Case Of Bakırköy, Yeşilköy-Yeşilyurt Urban Waterfront Zone"

Nowadays, waterfronts have become the focus of residential, tourism-related, commercial, and industrial investments. In addition to changes in the legal and administrative structures regarding the waterfront, privileges granted in zoning plans, not only paved the way for numerous practices, which restrict public access, the society has also gradually moved away from the waterfront. However, waterfronts, in addition to their spatial features as sources for different usages, are extremely important for society, and are public spaces, which shall be used for the benefit of society. However, waterfronts become subject to private ownership, through practices carried out. Functional spaces, along with structures consisting of big building blocks, such as hotels, malls, ports, and residence-type houses located at the waterfront, hinder public usage and damage the city – waterfront relation. Within the relevant scope, granting priority to public access and ensuring public's access to water/coast, are now considered as the most important condition of a waterfront city planning and the waterfront transformation/revival and renewal processes, in order for the waterfront to reclaim its public characteristic, for the reestablishment of the now-broken city- waterfront spatial relation, and for the public's integration with the waterfront. In the present study, urban waterfront, public space, and public space property of the waterfront were investigated legally, administratively and physically, as efforts were displayed to reveal criteria, which would ensure public access to waterfront. In the thesis, efforts were displayed to reveal the universal criteria, which would ensure public access to the waterfront, using policies conducted in waterfront cities of the world with regard to ensuring public access to the waterfront, guides produced on the planning and design of waterfronts, and relevant practices carried out, as a starting point. It is aimed for the criteria to ensure public access to the waterfront, to play a guiding role in the waterfront planning and waterfront transformation processes. Bakırköy waterfront, which is located in the İstanbul Metropolitan area, is the spot of several spatial and functional changes, and as a consequence, public usage and public access are interrupted. Bakırköy District's coastal city property began to wane, and the waterfront's loss of its public sense and access, is one of the most important factors in the waterfront's failure to protect its structure, which historically was integrated with the city and its inhabitants. As for Yeşilköy-Yeşilyurt Urban Waterfront Zone, part of the Bakırköy waterfront, which has been the spot of different usages in the urban development process, it still partially maintains its waterfront culture, and preserves its integration with the city, and it was determined as the area of work. The purpose of this study is to determine the criteria to ensure public access to the waterfront and to evaluate the conformity of the Yeşilköy-Yeşilyurt Urban Waterfornt Zone with the specified criteria at the physical measurability level.