TITLE:
Strategic Planning and Safety of Mountainous Areas in Türkiye’s Public Administration Organization
AUTHORS:
Zerrin Toprak Karaman
KEYWORDS:
Mountainous Area Administration, Governance, Interdisciplinarity, Safety, Social Awareness
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.12,
November
24,
2022
ABSTRACT: Türkiye
is a country with lots of mountainous areas. Türkiye’s total area is 782219.7269 km2 and 583770.9139 km2 of this total area is composed of mountainous
areas. In other words, our country’s 74.63% consists of mountains. 50% of our
country’s lands are higher than 1000 meters and 2/3 of the total area is above
500 meters of altitude. Studies have shown that Türkiye’s average height is
higher than the continent of Asia. Mountains are being opened to settlement in
an ever-increasing fashion starting from the foothills. Despite the climate
changes and the increasing population on the mountains, there is still no
mountainous area administration policy in Türkiye. Nevertheless, administration
of mountainous areas is related to the important topic of sustainable society,
sustainable resource management. In other terms, the issue is strongly related
to the important matter of social development enhanced by the untouched and
natural environment. Humans first need to design the environment that they live
in. It is crucial to highlight the importance of mountainous areas and define
multifaceted safety issues related to the features of those areas depending on
their geographical position. There are lots of interdisciplinary subjects
regarding mountains to be directly or indirectly studied. What is the important
factor? Is it the organization? Or is it the effects of that organization? The
answers to these questions lie in the lack of administrative awareness
regarding mountains in Türkiye and the problems arising from the lack thereof.
Accordingly, it is crucial to include the administration of mountains into the
public administration agenda and adapt the current protective improvements
regarding mountainous areas taking place in the Council of Europe of which Türkiye
has been an official member of since 1950. Due to
unplanned settlement and the lack of administration structure’s adaptation to
new circumstances, we directly face serious threats listed below. The mountains
and their administration should not be considered as another element of the
bundle of human or nature-induced problems such as intense heats, intense cold
temperatures, strong winds and storms, drought, falling rocks, landslides,
fires, terror, and etc. The responsibility to separate the mountains from other
issues, the need to turn the “planning and administration of mountainous areas”
into a matter of public policy, preparation of action plans regarding the
structure of the necessary organization and the safety of mountainous areas are
all included in the scope of this study. In addition, the paper also includes an administration
model suggested by the Council of Europe supported by the notes of the author
taken during the Academic Workshop on Sustainable and Effective Administration
of Mountainous Areas and Society 5.0 held on December 11, 2019 in Izmir with
the help of the Governorship of Izmir in celebration of the International
Mountain Day.