The Role of Government Policies and Strategies Behind the Shrinking Urban Core in an Expanding City Region: The Case of Izmir

Abstract

Over the last few decades, the term urban shrinkage has come to be accepted as a valid concept in international academic circles, and has gradually gained importance, with its causes the subject of well-documented discussion. While previous discussions of urban shrinkage have directed attention to cities shrinking as a whole, recent research started to recognize the case of shrinkage in growing cities and regions. As such, recent discussions of urban shrinkage indicate that patterns of shrinkage vary considerably from city to city, and from sub-region to sub-region, with the importance of local dynamics in responding to changing economic pressures given much consideration. Recent studies have tended to disregard the role of government policies and strategies put in place to facilitate the adaptation of the urban economies to the new conditions. Taking Izmir as an example, being a fast-growing metropolitan region in Turkey, this paper presents evidence of government policies and strategies aimed at enhancing the development of peripheral areas that have led to shrinkage of the metropolitan core. This paper focuses on this experience and discusses its implications.

Spatio-Temporal Modelling of the Change of Residential-Induced PM10 Pollution through Substitution of Coal with Natural Gas in Domestic Heating

“…In that sense, the changes in the urban macroform and population are evaluated. The metropolitan core has started to show signs of urban shrinkage in ˙Izmir [78]. Urban macroforms of 2010 and 2019 are in line with this argument since the built-up area of expansion remained almost stagnant from 2010 to 2019 (Figure 10).…”

Agglomeration of population and employment in the urbanization - industrialization interaction: The case of Izmir

“…Population changes represented by color contrast from high (red) -Population Increase-to low (blue) values -Population Decrease-in Figure 2 forms an outer ring of population decentralization around the metropolitan sub-region. Therefore, we may conclude that the shrinkage trend continues, as raised by Özatağan and Eraydın (2014) based on the data for the years 1990 and 2000. Besides, one can easily detect that the metropolitan area has expanded towards the periphery and enlarged its geography reach and hinterland by covering the districts of Menemen, Kemalpaşa, Torbalı, and Menderes -and even Aliağa in the North and Seferihisar in the southwest.…”

“…The question of whether the economy of İzmir is in a period of growth or recession leads us to analyze a polycentric settlement structure or city region formation of İzmir. Özatağan and Eraydın (2014) analyzed the population and employment data between the years 1990-2000 and found that the clustering of firms and employment spread towards the peripheries of the İzmir metropolitan area while forming new centers in their vicinity. According to their research findings, İzmir has been reorganizing and forming a city region by including peripheral settlements specialized in a particular economic activity.…”

Why small towns are shrinking: The spatial heterogeneity of small towns shrinkage and the impact of it from the perspective of rural-urban interaction in China

“…Reasons for this phenomenon vary accordingly. For instance growing city regions have witnessed core area shrinkages due to suburbanization being one major contributing factor [ 30 ]. Shrinkage in small towns predominantly occur at local scales considering the resource endowment of cities, economic decline in old, industrialized cities due to resource exhaustion has resulted in shrinking cities, such as Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester in Europe, and Detroit, Pittsburg, Cleveland, and Youngstown in the United States.…”