Resilience Planning and Urbanization Experience of Bayburt

Negative developments in the environment of the modern world such as pollution, disasters, scarcity of different sources and water resources, climate change and global effects of any local changes requires taking precautions and introduce the need for new approaches. The concept of “resilience” becomes a current issue in this process and it develops existing discussions on sustainability, management of risks and governance. Resilience is a capacity of system to cope with external unexpected risks. In the urban area, the concept means adaptation and coping capacity of urban systems against shocks and risks which may arise, disasters and emergencies. The main aim of this study is to evaluate existing urbanization practices of Bayburt in terms of the concept of resilience. In this context, consistency of existing urbanization dynamics and ecological system is questioned with resilience perspective. In the first stage, the resilience concept and its offers in the planning area are discussed. Then, framework for the analysis of Bayburt is presented. In the last part, economic, social and ecological risks are determined for the case study of Bayburt. In this stage, economic, social and ecological indicators (such as the change of employment, income and main economic activities; changing population, education and migration status, dependency ratios and welfare; changing land use characteristics in historical process) were used to define the existing situation of the city. Also, old plans of the city are analyzed. The findings show that urbanization policy and practices in Bayburt are the reasons of ecological risks. New planning approach should immediately be developed with the resilience perspective. Otherwise, the city will be faced with big risks in the near future in terms of livability.