The transformation of the planning paradigm from rational comprehensive planning to participatory planning is commonly explained by the shift from instrumental rationality to communicative rationality. Based on communicative rationality, participatory planning approach has its own assumptions. One of the assumptions and pre-conditions of the realization of participatory planning practices is consensus-building. However, because of context-dependency of participatory planning processes, building consensus at the same level within every unique context is not possible. Therefore, comparing the participatory processes in terms of their success, which is commonly evaluated with standard success criteria in the literature, cannot be proper to participatory planning approach. Moreover, for the present study, exploring the factors affecting the participatory processes with a critical approach to increase the realization chance of participatory practices is more important than evaluating their successes. Focusing on the factors, affecting the participatory planning processes at interactional and socio-cultural levels, the thesis study aims to explore the socio-psychological dimensions of participatory processes that hinder and/or enhance them. To do that, the study poses three main research questions: &lsquo / what are the socio-psychological dimensions of the participatory processes of Gazi, Kaymakli, Odunpazari and Seyrek?&rsquo / , &lsquo / how much do socio-psychological dimensions explain the success of participatory processes?&rsquo / and &lsquo / how do socio-psychological dimensions explain contextually different participatory processes?&rsquo / To respond to these questions, the study was designed as case study and intended to pursue exploratory and quasi-experimental research approaches. As a result of the study, the research questions were answered in the case of the &lsquo / Local Government and NGO Cooperation in Participatory Democracy&rsquo / project in the Turkish context.

Rapid urbanization, which is one of the major problems of contemporary era, created cities as the major destroying centers of nature and ecology by human beings. In this respect, urban agriculture takes place in urban areas as a new way to meet nature and urban for improving the quality of life in the last decades. Despite the belief that agricultural activities always take place in rural areas, agriculture in urban areas would provide citizens many opportunities in terms of social, economic and environmental aspects. This study aims to identify the notions of urban agriculture, and to investigate its economic, social and environmental impacts by exemplifying the different practices around world. It focuses on Black Sea Towns of Turkey in the case of Rize where agriculture is occupied in important parts of urban and rural areas. Unique features of agriculture in urban areas as they differ from other implementations in the world are examined. In this thesis, UA is considered as socio-economic and townscape value in the city. In the case of Rize, urban agriculture appears as an indispensable part of social life that bears the imprint of rural background of the cities.

The main purpose of this study is to determine the problems of thermal tourism as a kind of alternative tourism in Turkey investigating within the context of legislative-organizational aspects and planning dimensions. The study is also submitting some suggestions about solutions. After the announcement of the conceptual framework related with thermal tourism, the research provides general information about the countries important for thermal tourism sector in the global world. The study examines the planning process and the organizational structure related to thermal tourism sector showing two different tendencies in Heviz in Hungary and Peninsula Hot Springs in Australia in order to investigate different aspects of the development of thermal tourism in detail. Then / the thesis handles the development of thermal tourism in Turkey and it also describes the reasons of the underdevelopment of thermal tourism in respect of legislative-organizational aspects and planning dimensions in Turkey. Finally, in the last chapter / assessments carried out by examining the current situation in Nevsehir Kozakli Thermal Tourism Center and suggestions for solving the problems in practice are offered. In conclusion, this study offers some suggestions about the improvement of thermal tourism in Turkey in legislative-organizational and spatial aspects.

Tourism and local economic development are closely linked. Tourism can have a constructive effect on local economy and may help balance some of the inequalities between different parts of a country. Thus, in many regions in the world, the tourism sector is accepted as one of the greatest sources of economic growth and job creation. In line with economic contribution of the sector, tourism policy has become an instrument for territorial development and for enhancing an area&rsquo / s opportunities. It appears that tourism in Turkey, which is a tourism country, developed rapidly especially after the 1980s and gained important competitive advantage in international tourism market by using her mass tourism (sea, sand, sun) potential well. In addition to mass tourism, Turkey also has a significant potential for alternative tourism in different regions. Although Turkey takes important tourism share in the world, in terms of tourism revenues and arrivals, it is not sufficient considering the potential. It is obvious that alternative tourism potential is not fully explored due to some obstacle faced in the tourism sector. Insufficient commercialization of natural resources such as geothermal, lack of adequate infrastructure for diversification and geographical expansion, lack of effective promotion and marketing activities are some of these obstacles. Particularly, having rich geothermal resources, thermal tourism has come to the fore as a type of alternative tourism in Turkey. Thermal tourism is a significant tourism type, which helps to improve people&rsquo / s health condition by providing a complementary therapy and also allows many recreational activities for the visitors. The aim of this thesis is to point out the crucial position of geothermal resources in the context of thermal tourism for their contribution to local economic development. In this context, the first chapter introduces the main aim and the research questions of the thesis and second chapter mentions the importance of tourism for local economic development. The third chapter explains importance of thermal tourism, which is given priority in the diversification of alternative tourism policy in Turkey, is discussed. Within this context, the thermal tourism policies determined by the 2023 Turkey Tourism Strategy and Thermal Tourism Master Plan are investigated as the main local economic development tool of regions, which are all rich in geothermal resources. In the fourth chapter, the direct and indirect economic effects of tourism considering the multiplier effect of tourist spending. The methodology selected for the case study, is mentioned in the fifth chapter. Finally, as a case study Termal District of Yalova will be analyzed in terms of employment data as well as investments in these regions in detail in order to understand the economic importance of thermal tourism at local and regional levels in the context of Thermal Tourism Master Plan.

This thesis tries to identify the new city-governance mechanisms deployed in the Western Aegean small town of Seferihisar, following the town&lsquo / s membershipto the international Cittaslowassociation of small towns. The membership has quickly transformed the place into a yearlong touristic destination, while leading several other agendas for the improvement of theurbanquality of life in the town. Regarding Turkey&lsquo / s EU Accession Process, this thesis regards Cittaslow as a multi-scalar meta-governance mechanism, which guides the municipalities of small towns in rescaling their urban governance as tailor-fit to their corresponding sociospatial specificities. The thesis argues that the social-democratic municipality in Seferihisar plays a key energizing role in the

This study focuses on the determination of locality of Integrated Coastal Zone Management studies in Turkish legislation and applicability. Accordingly the process of the awareness of necessity for Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the world, related definitions, concepts and implementations, international institutional organizations and planning management experiences of different countries are firstly investigated. Afterwards coastal legislation, coastal planning process, recent studies in order to regulate authority in Turkey and as a result management, legislation, authority is evaluated. Finally Izmit Gulf (Kocaeli- Yalova) Integrated Coastal Zone Planning and Management Project are examined as a case study. State of Izmit Gulf, basic principles, zoning decisions and suggested strategies and activities are scrutinized. This study is also the first compilation concerning recent changes in planning legislation in Turkey related to ICZM studies.

One of the most common retaining systems for deep excavations is by supporting a wall with multiple levels of anchors. In densely built urban areas, preventing soil movement with such a system can be very costly. Additionally, anchored walls are assumed and forced to act independently during design calculations, thus fail to take the advantage of the rigidity of the whole system at the corners of the excavation area. An alternative support system that uses the entire system is bracing of the walls with struts. But such a system greatly hinders construction space. In this research, a new type of supporting system has been investigated by performing a parametric study in finite element analyses program. New system is a single ring at each support level, supporting the system at several locations. A comparative study has been undertaken between the conventional systems and the new system in both 2D and 3D. PLAXIS finite element analysis software was used for the analyses. The primary aim was to investigate the structural and geotechnical performance of the arch supported system. The study revealed that the new system provides improvement for specific cases and can be considered as an alternatve support system for such cases.

Organized Industrial Zones (OIZs) are used as a main and important industry policy tool in Turkey. In 2012, the number of OIZs is 263 with 148 active and 115 planned ones. Network between the firms reveal the knowledge spillovers which is inevitable for economic growth of a country for neo-classical economists. In this thesis, existence of intra-OIZ and intra-industry knowledge spillovers in Ankara and Istanbul is tested by the help of an export decision function. As it considers the spatial dependence between the regional units the spatial econometric method is preferred for the analysis. The data set is taken from the &ldquo / Field Research Survey&rdquo / of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization (SMEDO). It consists of 62,137 firm level observations from 24 manufacturing industries in 81 provinces between 2004 and 2007. After the cleaning process of the data, 1545 and 1172 observations are left for Ankara and Istanbul, respectively. The results show that the size of the firm (which is proxied by logarithm of total labor), technology (which is proxied by computer usage), organizational proximity and foreign language knowledge of the administrator are the common determinants of export decision for Ankara and Istanbul for both intra-IOZ and intra-industry relations when spatial dependence is not ignored. Besides these variables, in Ankara percentage of high skilled labor is significant while in Istanbul cluster proximity is significant. Moreover, for Ankara while for intra-OIZ relations the spatial effect is one third of the total effect, it is one fourth of the total effect for intra-industry relation. For Istanbul one fourth of the total effect is from spatial effects for both intra-OIZ and intra-industry relations.

The Uzbekistani state declared mahalla kengash as a local self-government in order to achieve decentralization in its administrative system. This thesis is a critical study of whether decentralization can be an explanatory concept in the examination of new institution-building in Uzbekistan. This thesis claims that dialectic relationship between the center and local state becomes conflictual when there is inconsistency between (a) (national) ruling class and its hegemony, and (b) (local) ruling class and its hegemony. The hegemony of both national and local ruling classes is shaped according to their capacity for conformity/dissention with the Soviet regime, and neo-liberal structural hegemony. This study based on a case study of Tashkent mahallashas demonstrated that decentralization process has been reversed as a result of the strategies of the Uzbekistani state when the different responses of the mahalla kengash do not conform to mahalla imagined by the state. Shortly, the urban mahalla kengashes of mahalla types which were shaped according to identity politics during the Soviet era could be easily adapted the new regime shifting from class to identity politics / whereas other mahalla types shaped according to class politics of the Soviet regime has fall in difficult situation. Finally, the decentralization policy and hegemonic projects of the regime have been shaped by the dialectic relationship between the state and mahalla kengash. Thus this relationship can be both spatio-temporally and socio-spatially differentiated.Consequently, it has argued that standard theoretical paradigms for understanding transition in post-Soviet local politics are less globally generalizable than previously thought.

Inom svensk process- och tillverkningsindustri finns det stora mängder spillvärme som sällan kommer till användning. Att hitta olika tekniska lösningar för att effektivt tillvarata denna spillvärme skapar både nytta ur ett hållbart perspektiv samt ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv för företaget. I denna rapport presenteras en utarbetad beräkningsmodell i Excel. Beräkningsmodellen används för att uppskatta lönsamheten för anläggning av ett högtemperaturlager i berggrunden. Excel-filen ska kunna användas för företag som en första uppskattning om ett borrhålslager är ett alternativ för tillvaratagande av spillvärme. Utformningen av beräkningsmallen utgick från Xylems högtemperaturlager i Emmaboda. Beräkningsmallen testades på Xylems borrhålslager. Resultatet visar att 2166 MWh/år kan tas ut från lagret, vilket stämmer överens till 83 % med Xylems egna beräkningar. Borrhålslagrets verkningsgrad beräknades till 65 % vilket kan jämföras med de 68 % som Xylem kalkylerat med. Nyckelord: Borrhålslager, UTES-system, BTES-system, HT-BTES-system, geoenergi, spillvärme.