The Challenges to Sustainable Urban Future in a Rapidly Changing World: A Case Study of Izmir, Turkey

The notion of sustainability is founded on the environmental, economic, and social issues under the conditions created by human–environment interactions in the twentieth century. From then on, it has been a focus of contemporary research as a common goal in urban ecology, urban planning and design, and environmental management because day by day most of the world is becoming more and more urban. The urbanization process leads unprecedented demand for natural resources with restricted financial and human resources. So, securing a sustainable urban future has become an important topic on a global scale to cope with urbanization pressures on nature, biodiversity, climate, society, economy, transportation, ecosystem services etc. Today, whilst the most cities are striving toward becoming more sustainable, there is often limited success in implementing the core principles of sustainability. For urban environments to have a sustainable future, they require integrated planning approaches which include all aspects of urban environments and set the linkages between social, environmental, political, technical, and economic aspects. Landscapes in Turkey have a long history of being utilized by different civilizations. This has led to fundamental human induced changes and environmental issues throughout the country. However, facilitating a sustainable urban future in Turkey is constrained by insufficient knowledge of the state of socio-ecological systems as in many parts of the world. Therefore, this chapter reviews the key environmental, economic, social, political, and aesthetic challenges in urban sustainability in Izmir, Turkey using the sustainable landscapes framework proposed by Selman (Sustain: Sci, Pract Policy 4(2):23–28, 2008). We share our perspectives on the need to focus on different dimensions of sustainability in Turkey’s landscapes and some key points in landscape planning and management strategies.