The effects of safety concept in urban waterfront design

Today, users are feeling insecure in many public places and they plan their daily lives by avoiding those places. This situation, which is the result of concern about exposure to crime, is described as "fear of crime" in the literature. This fear that arises from the problems caused by the physical or social structure of the urban space, and the effects on the users are examined by many disciplines such as criminology, sociology and urban design. In the field of urban design, interventions to urban places which create sense of insecurity are explained by the "Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design" (CPTED) principles that focuses on improving the physical and social structure of the space. Within the scope of the thesis, the CPTED approach and the creation of safe spaces are examined in particular for waterfront areas. Urban waterfronts are public spaces that are often used in urban life by different groups of users and it provides spaces for recreational activities. However, when waterfront areas are poorly communicated with the city center due to wrong urban design and lacking natural observation, security problems arise and these waterfront areas become places that are unsafe to the user. Purpose of thesis study is; establishment of the concepts of "fear of crime" and "CPTED" in relation to "urban waterfront areas"; determination of safe waterfront design criterias; and the improvement of problematic urban waterfronts in the direction of the CPTED approach. Theoretical information developed as a conclusion of the conceptual study has been examined in the "Kadıköy waterfront recreation area" where security problems are experienced. This recreation area was evaluated with observations and survey studies and suggestions for improvement of the waterfront area were presented. As a result of the thesis, it is concluded that the Kadıköy waterfront area is problematic for the users. The proposed solutions for the redesign of the waterfront area are presented in the "conclusions and recommendations" part of the thesis. One of the important proposal is to create activity areas, which are suitable for different seasonal conditions, to invite users to waterfront area every season and each time of the day to increase natural surveillance. The other recommendation is to make the access roads safer and more visible by users. So that, the users would feel safer in this waterfront recreation area.