Over-Agglomeration and Its Effects on Sustainable Development: A Case Study on Istanbul

Abstract

Inequality, in any form and dimension, is a major damaging factor for sustainable development. One of the essential drivers of inequality is the over-agglomeration and congestion in a certain region. The reasons for the agglomeration are well documented, such as knowledge-spillovers, access to supply and demand markets, availability of skilled labor, and good infrastructure. However, over-agglomeration in a region, mainly triggered by poor planning and mismanagement of resource allocation, may also become a barrier for sustainable development. The over-agglomeration generally results in undesired negative effects impeding the economic, social, and environmental development any further, even causing irreversible social and environmental issues. Following the big-push model, a theoretical model is proposed to consider the negative effects of increasing rent prices due to over-agglomeration first on the industrial development of a country. This is then followed by a case study of Istanbul as a megacity and its effects on Turkey’s sustainable development through industrial, social, and ecological aspects. Istanbul has been the main industrial and economic center of Turkey as the city further expanded rapidly in the last 50 years in terms of population and urbanization. This over-agglomeration has resulted in very high rent prices in the city compared to the rest of Turkey, which affected the country’s industrialization. The over-agglomeration in Istanbul has also created significant economic imbalances and income-inequalities within the city and across Turkey. The environmental degradation, the loss of forest area, and very high air and noise pollution were other results of the city’s rapid expansion and over-agglomeration. These industrial, social, and environmental dynamics pose serious challenges to Turkey’s sustainable development as long as over-agglomeration in Istanbul persists or even aggravates further.

Sustainable Development for Small Economy and Diversification from a Dominant Industry: Evidence from Macao

“…Second, this study confirms that the scale of the current gambling industry in Macao is in line with the theory of congestion of production factors, which states that overdevelopment of a dominant industry will reduce its own efficiency and harm the development of other industries [51]. In recent years, the scale of the gambling industry has expanded and its efficiency has declined.…”

An empirical investigation of socio-economic impacts of agglomeration economies in major cities of Punjab, Pakistan

“…These slum settlements develop peri-urban areas around the city boundary, making rapid modifications to city landscape, and in human activities (Arif & Gupta, 2018). These undesired negative effects impeding economic, social and environmental development are termed as over-agglomeration in the economic literature (Kaya & Koc, 2019). Nonetheless, the access to information and telecommunication has reduced the importance of Agglomeration Economies (Guiliano, Kang, & Yuan, 2019).…”

Asymmetric nexus between urban agglomerations and environmental pollution in top ten urban agglomerated countries using quantile methods

“…Such magnificent trends of urban development have immensely affected energy demand causing environmental degradation and raising the challenges for sustainable development in the world (Shahbaz et al 2017;York 2007). Urban concentration in big cities, which is the result of market access, knowledge spillover and modern infrastructure, could have a profound impact on the economic, social and ecological environment (Kaya and Koc 2019). But excessive levels of urbanization could also have drastic effects on the environment.…”

“…The concept of smart and compact cities based on ecofriendly and data-driven integrated city infrastructure nowadays has gained much popularity to achieve environmental sustainability by making the optimal use of city density and energy-efficient designs (Bibri 2019). However, the idea of city compactness is a complicated concept and even could increase air pollution because of excessive urban concentration, traffic congestion, overcrowding and over-agglomeration, inadequate urban planning, inefficient infrastructure and urban sprawl problems especially in developing countries (Dieleman and Wegener 2004;Kaya and Koc 2019;Neuman 2005). In their empirical study, Zhang et al (2017) report that disproportionate urban agglomerations in Asian cities cause environmental degradation.…”