A Study On The Deficiencies Of The Turkish Urban Legislation System Regarding Urban Climate: The Case Of Open And Green Spaces Of Istanbul

Urban areas play a dual role in the climate crisis, both as victims and contributors.Reports from the United Nations and the World Bank emphasize cities as key arenas for both climate action and exposure (UN-Habitat, 2011; World Bank, 2010).Notably, the Mediterranean Basin (including Turkey) has been identified as one of the regions most vulnerable to the effects of climate change (1) (Wilby, 2007;WWF, 2021).Recent data from Turkey indicate a continuous rise in summer temperatures and a sharp increase in meteorological disasters (TSMS, 2020), underscoring the urgency of urban climate adaptation (2).Despite this, the relationship between climate and urban space has not been adequately addressed in Turkey's planning practice or academic discourse.International consensus is growing around the importance of nature-based solutions such as green and blue infrastructure as essential tools for climate adaptation, particularly in urban areas (McPhearson et al., 2018;Andersson et al., 2019).Green infrastructure, especially urban open and green spaces (OGS), plays a crucial role in mitigating heat stress and enhancing resilience to a range of climate-related hazards.However, Turkish planning regulations continue to treat these functionally distinct spaces under a single classification.This approach assumes uniform environmental performance across all types of open and green spaces, disregarding critical differences in vegetation density, surface materials, and cooling potential.This creates a gap between ecological function and legal designation, which may limit the effectiveness of planning strategies aimed at improving urban climate resilience.This legislative and functional gap is addressed in this study through an analysis of the thermal performance of various urban OGS types that are legally defined under the same category in Turkey's Spatial Plans Construction Regulation.Using spatial and statistical analyses based on satellite-derived surface temperature and vegetation data (NDVI), this research evaluates the effectiveness of these areas in mitigating urban heat.The study focuses on Istanbul, one of Turkey's most urbanized and climatically vulnerable cities.The aim is to empirically assess the functional diversity among OGS categories and to advocate for evidence-based zoning reforms that reflect their differing climatic impacts.