Abstract
There is a sick world in the universe where the uncertainty of the future is increasing, unexpected events are happening more frequently, and current problems are revealing themselves more and more. Humanity and all other living beings in nature are experiencing a world where their life is under threat and difficulties are constantly encountered. In the 21st century, global pressures at the urban scale, namely climate change, economic fluctuations, social injustices, present new challenges, and vulnerabilities. On top of all these problems, it has not been easy for the world to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest challenge of our day, and other environmental problems for the last 1 year. Climate change and environmental quality issues have started to be argued much more after COVID-19. This is because rapid urbanization and unsustainable approaches, together with the pandemic, are destroying ecosystems and biodiversity, and increasingly reducing human well-being and urban resilience. Therefore, city governments have become a center for taking precautions against disasters and risks, and ultimately building back better. At this point, it can be clearly emphasized that resilient cities develop the capacity to cope with today's challenges by considering the specific characteristics of city geographies, and that green infrastructure (GI) plays a prime role in providing adaptive solutions to the volatility of cities. GI provides many benefits in cities such as improving air quality, waste management, carbon sequestration, reducing energy demand and social and societal benefits. Valley areas, which have been preferred since the beginning of human history due to their proximity to water resources and creating a safe place for people, are one of the most important components of GI systems and they generate local air flows to cities due to their morphological structures. Moreover, they have notable potential to provide resources such as water, fertile soil and food, as well as to make cities more environmentally resilient. The overall aim of this research is to reveal the vulnerabilities of Ankara, the capital of Turkey, against environmental crises, shocks and stresses, and to evaluate the contribution of the city's last and completely unspoiled valley, Imrahor, to the city in terms of resilience. In addition, this study provides essential policy recommendations for nature-based solutions to strengthen the GI quality of the valley as an outstanding air corridor for the city and to mitigate a priori future environmental risks. Although the Imrahor Valley, which was adversely affected by the neo-liberal policies pursued in the 1980s, has an ecological value that can contribute to the environmental and social resilience of the city, it has gradually started to come under the control of construction with mega projects, partial plans and decisions since 2000. In order to carry out the research, the plans and projects from past to present, field photographs, satellite images were examined first, and analysis-synthesis maps were produced by using secondary data of soil structure, geological and morphological characteristics of the valley. Therefore, it has been discussed throughout the study how it is possible to prevent the current problems of the valley and to ensure the resilience of the capital and its citizens by implementing the most appropriate GI strategies and policies as an ecosystem service. These results, with the findings and solution proposals obtained from the study, will confirm the potential to enhance urban resilience by the way of arranging valleys as a GI component and will make a great contribution to the existing literature by emphasizing the necessity of restructuring the planning process that includes appropriate protection-use balance policies.
