Six square kilometers of Istanbul's land reclaimed from the sea

Six square kilometers of land have been gained from Istanbul coasts and opened for urban use by filling up the sea. With the acceleration of such infrastructure work at the start of the millennium, professionals are warning about risks.

"We are trying to compensate for the green areas that we cannot protect, by building filled areas we cannot create in the city and the coastline … Otherwise, the natural preservation of coasts in a city with a landscape as unique as the Bosphorus could have even enhanced its beauty," said the Chamber of Urban Planners of the Union of Architects and Engineers of Turkey (TMMOB).

The land gained by filling up the sea since 2000 accounts for nearly 2.6 square kilometers, or about the size of the total area of Heybeliada, an island off Istanbul, according to calculations and satellite maps. 

This is nearly close to the three square kilometers of land filled between 1963 and 2005, according to a former study by Mehmet Gatih Döker of Sakarya University. 

The projects included in the post-2000 calculations are the gigantic recreation areas on the Yenikapı neighborhood and Maltepe district, the land reclamation that totally changed the island of Yassıada completely, the additions to the Ataköy Marina, the pedestrian roads at Emirgan and Çubuklu by the Bosphorus, the reclaimed area for the Coast Guard on the bay of Telli Baba, a park on the coast of Avcılar, a fish market that has been transferred from Yenikapı to a new location in Beylikdüzü and a marina constructed in Pendik.

The figures do not include ongoing projects, namely the additions on the Ambarlı Port, the reclaimed area for a tram line on the Golden Horn, a project declared for Beykoz, the ongoing pier construction in Kabataş and the boat...