Gülden Erkut

Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Istanbul Technical University

Gülden Erkut is Professor of Regional Planning at the City and Regional Planning Department, Istanbul Technical University (ITU). She obtained her first degree (BSc in Sociology) from Middle East Technical University (METU) in 1976 and Masters degree in City Planning (MSc in City Planning) from METU in 1981. She completed her PhD (in City and Regional Planning) at Istanbul Technical University in 1986. She served as the Chair of Regional Planning division of the department for 10 years (2000–2010).

Gülden Erkut’s research interests and publications include strategic spatial planning, regional and local development, social policies and urban sociology. She has extensive academic and professional experiences in teaching, research and consultancy. She conducted regional and local planning projects in cooperation with international, national and local institutions.

She contributed to the international/interdisciplinary ‘Urban Management’ Master program, Berlin Technical University as a DAAD Guest Professor (2012-2013).

Gülden Erkut served for the expert commissions on ‘Urbanism’ and ‘Regional Planning’ for the 7th, 8th and 9th 5-year Development Plans of Turkey. She worked in Istanbul Earthquake Master Plan (2003), 1/100.000 scaled Istanbul Environmental Plan (2005) and 1/100.000 scaled Bursa Environmental Plan (2012). Recently she works for ‘Turkey Spatial Strategic Plan’, Ministry of Environment and Urbanism (2018-2019).

She was a member of the Policy Unit 7 on ‘Urban Economic Development Strategies’ for UN Habitat III which produced a key policy paper supporting The New Urban Agenda. She is Habitat UNI focal point of Istanbul Technical University.