Başakşehir 2050: Smart City of Happiness and Well-being

Our ambitions and our vision

Since the start of the UNaLab project, the city of Başakşehir has aimed to develop the most feasible nature-based solutions that will have a positive impact on all the stakeholders and especially all the citizens of Başakşehir.

During the process, the Municipality developed an ambition to provide the following solutions to its citizens and other stakeholders.

1. Green and Nature - In 2050 Başakşehir is a green city, where

• people live in harmony with nature and enjoy green spaces, smell the fresh air and hear the sounds of nature.
• all living creatures are treated equally in their natural environment. The city is well-planned with a balance between buildings and uninterrupted nature.
• people are environmentally aware and protect nature as their house.

2. Zero Waste Water – By 2050

• not one drop of water is wasted in Başakşehir.
• the people are aware of the value of water and use it wisely.
• the government has a zero waste water policy and actively protects water availability.

3. Circular and Self-sufficient – By 2050 Başakşehir

• has a circular system with zero waste.
• the people are fully aware of the value and separate their waste.
• the municipality has a zero-waste policy and a smart recycling infrastructure is available to capture the value from waste as a resource.

The ambition setting was followed by the vision setting of the Municipality in a series of internal meetings and a workshop with the UNaLab facilitators in October 2018. The ambitions were fine tuned to three focus areas for the Municipality’s vision. The three focus areas are listed below.

1. Creating sustainable awareness and behaviour in Başakşehir;

2. Increasing green and blue in Başakşehir;

3. Creating clean and sustainable industrial areas within the boundries of the city.

Following the setting of the vision, the Municipality triggered a number of projects in line with its ambition and vision. Below follows a few examples of this.

Creating Awareness

1. An awareness creating animal brand was developed and a few animations and documents were produced for training purposes. These trainings have become part of the primary school education as well as living lab educations.

2. Awareness creating sets were developed for houses and these packages have been distributed to most of the houses in the city.

3. Park equipment and statues made from waste material have been produced and installed in special parks in order to raise awareness of what kind of and how much waste we create and throw away.

4. Waste seperation bins have been installed everywhere in the city.

Increasing Blue and Green

1. Two large parks with a variety of plants have been opened in 2018. The average size of each park is around 70.000 m2.

2. The Eşkinoz Valley project has been designed to improve the blue and green in the city as well as to provide activities and promote citizens’ well-being.

Creating Clean and Sustainable Industrial Areas

1. One of the largest Organised Industrial Districts (İOSB) with around 30.000 SME’s is located in Başakşehir. A meeting was held with the Board of the District in order to develop a future for a cleaner industrial district. In principle, the focus was on grey water pre-treatment and following talks with Istanbul Water Works Automatic Grey Water Purity, measurement devices were installed to the water outlets of the district. These devices give automatic alarms to the auditing function of Istanbul Water Works, in case the purity level is below given minimum standards.

2. In principle, it was also decided to plan for large centralised grey water pre-treatment facilities in order to reduce the burden on SME’s.

Stakeholders involved in the ambition and vision work

Başakşehir Living Lab; Başakşehir Municipality; three private companies working in the areas of water and soil; one company which collects, separetes and recycles waste paper; one housing construction company; İOSB management and a few citizens.