Dr. Çetiner’s Blogs (Dr. Beytullah Gültekin Çetiner)

Population of Istanbul

Istanbul’s population reached 12.75 million as announced by the Turkish Statistical Institution (TUIK). This is almost half of Malaysia’s population which is estimated as 24,821,286 (nearly 25 million) (July 2007)

It is quite high enough to be overlooked, said Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Kadir Topbas on Tuesday. The population of Istanbul is more than population of many countries.

The bad news is that Istanbul’s population is still rising.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting in Istanbul Topbas said they were not in a race for a higher population figure and pointed out that it could intensify problems.

Topbas said the daily mobility was not taken into consideration in the recent census and argued that when daily visitors from surrounding provinces and the 7 mn. tourists that visit the city were taken into account the population would be much higher.

“We don’t want anymore rise in population. According to our future plans, the city can hold a few more million people but when that is exceeded it will be congested,” said Topbas.

Topbas said Istanbul’s population was estimated as 20mn by 2045 or 2050 and warned that Istanbul could not hold that many people.

“We are setting new thresholds to keep the population in a lower level. By drawing in a work force with better qualifications: by attributing qualities to Istanbul like; financial and convention center we are trying to make it a city relatively free from Industry, ” said Topbas.

About Istanbul

Many people think that Istanbul is the capital city of Turkey. But it is wrong. It was capital city during Ottomans’ era. Now the capital city of Turkey is Ankara. However, Istanbul still is the most dominant city in whole Turkey.

Geographical Location and Natural Conditions

The Bosporus, a narrow straight, links the Marmara See to the Black See, and divides Istanbul into two main parts: a European and an Asian.

The European Istanbul is split in old and modern sections by the Golden Horn, a narrow channel off the Bosporus.

The Bosporus is accompanied by rolling hills over them the city is spread out.

Istanbul has the most important airport in Turkey and the city has been for centuries an international junction to land and sea trade routes. The city has as well the most important Turkish harbour.

For a better traffic flow in the city two bridges were built over the Bosporus and a third one is planned.

Climate and Vegetation

Istanbul has a temperate climate composed of 4 seasons. It is described with warm summers (from 10°C to 29°C) and mild winters (from 4°C to 15°C). The precipitation varies from an average of 33 mm in summer to an average of 107 mm in winter.

Istanbul vegetation zones can be classified in to two groups:

• Scrub and forest as natural vegetation, grove, park and housing gardens made by human efforts.
• Scrubs which occur as a result of destruction of forests are generally found together with forest. Scrub formations are found in the southwest part of Istanbul.

Forests are the main vegetation in and around Istanbul. There are two forests on both sides of the Bosporus, named “Belgrade Forest” at the European side and “Alemdag Forest” on the Asian side. The dominate tree species is the oak (Q. robur, Q. petrea).

General Data

Historical Background

Up to the 15^th century the settlement style which reflects the Byzantium identity followed the same function in Ottoman times and several monuments have been protected until now. From the 16^th century Islamic city form has been gained with urban monuments, silhouette, ports and harbours. In the followed century urban population continued to increase and functional divisions and development structure of the city were defined. In the 18^th century the most important development which defines the identity and macro form of the city was the civil buildings in Bosporus and Halic showing the wealth of the Ottoman Empire.

After 19^th century the traditional society structure of Ottoman couldn’t resist to the industrial revolution in the West. With the demolition of some important monuments in the historical peninsula, roads were built and a new period which has multi- centre, difference in man scale structure, inharmonious permanent and transient structures began. Therefore urban space which Byzantium and Ottoman used for 2000 years lost its attraction. This socio-economic environment destroyed Istanbul’s identity. Western culture continued its effect over urban identity. In the republic period migration beginning from 1945 caused great chances in physical structure of the city. Transition to the open economy is increased, private sector enterprises gained importance, by development of transportation and communication Istanbul became a population attraction centre. Beside the increased migration, the first planning studies to find solutions to urban problems began with H. Prost in 1937 however till now these planning studies haves been insufficient. So as to answer the needs for nearly 10 million people until 2010, Istanbul Metropolitan area sub-region master plan was implemented.

Economy

Istanbul has always been the centre of the country’s economic life because of its location at an international junction of land and sea trade routes. Turkey’s major manufacturing factories are settled in the city. Istanbul province produces cotton, fruit, olive oil, silk, and tobacco. Food processing, textile production, oil products, rubber, metal ware, leather, chemicals, electronics, glass, machinery, paper and paper products and alcoholic drinks are among the major industrial products. The city also has plants that assemble automobiles and trucks.

The economy of Istanbul stands solid on two columns: national it dominates the trade and it has international significance.

Istanbul has 20% of Turkey’s industrial labour and 38% Turkey’s industrial working place. The city occurs 55% of Turkey’s trade and 45% of the coutries’ wholesale trade and Istanbul occurs 21.2% of Turkey’s gross national product.

All in all the metropolis Istanbul is the economical capital of Turkey. It has a population of 10,072,470 inhabitants in 2000 according to the last population census and therefore one of the biggest cities in Europe. Istanbul’s population grows at the rate of 3.45% annually due to the migration from countryside. The city has 54 municipalities and extends for over 100 km. Population density of Turkey is 81 people per sq km but in Istanbul population density is 1700 people per sq km. Istanbul contributes with 40% of all tax collected taxes in Turkey and produces 27.5% of Turkey’s national product.

Because of the social changes Turkey is confronted with problems, which are mostly solved in the western European countries years ago (squatters, mass transportation). A problem for the city administration represents the irregular and illegal urbanisation, which increase rapidly leaving the Greater Istanbul Municipality not much time to search for solutions. A challenge that is constantly growing, especially taking into account the need of collective housing areas addressing to a population of 13.000.000 people which is to be built within metropolitan area until the year 2010.

P.S. The population of Istanbul is according to January, 2008

My father is the Best
I attach here a nice post sent by a friend without any change. It is really summarizing attitudes of many of us towards our daddies.

Me and My Father
When I was 4 Yrs Old : My father is THE BEST
When I was 6 Yrs Old : My father seems to know everything
When I was 10 Yrs Old : My father is excellent but he is short tempered
When I was 12 Yrs Old : My father was nice when I was little
When I was 14 Yrs Old : My father started being too sensitive
When I was 16 Yrs Old : My father can’t keep up with modern time
When I was 18 Yrs Old : My father is getting less tolerant as the days pass by
When I was 20 Yrs Old : It is too hard to forgive my father, how could my mum stand him all these years
When I was 25 Yrs Old : My father seems to be objecting to everything I do
When I was 30 Yrs Old: It’s very difficult to be in agreement with my father, I wonder if my Grandfather was troubled by my father when he was a youth
When I was 40 Yrs Old: My father brought me up with a lot of discipline, I must do the same
When I was 45 Yrs Old: I am puzzled, how did my father manage to raise all of us
When I was 50 Yrs Old : It’s rather difficult to control my kids, how much did my father suffer for the sake of upbringing and protecting us
When I was 55 Yrs Old: My father was far looking and had wide plans for us, he was gentle and outstanding.
When I became 60 Yrs Old: My father is THE BEST

Note that it took 56 Yrs to complete the cycle and return to the starting point “My father is THE BEST” !

Let’s be good to our parents before it’s too late and pray to Allah that our own children will treat us even better than the way we treated our parents

Professor bans students from using Google and Wikipedia

Professor Tara Brabazon, from the University of Brighton, said too many young people around the world were taking the easy option when asked to do research and simply repeating the first things they found on internet searches. The professor has criticised students for relying on websites like Google and Wikipedia to do their thinking for them.
She has dubbed the phenomenon “The University of Google”.

Prof Brabazon said: “The education world has pursued new technology with an almost evangelical zeal and it is time to take a step back and give proper consideration of how we use it.

“Too many students don’t use their own brains enough. We need to bring back the important values of research and analysis.”

She said thousands of students across the country, including those at the universities of Brighton and Sussex, were churning out banal and mediocre work by using what search engines provided them.

Prof Brabazon, a media studies specialist with a background in history and literature, said: “It is down to institutions to prevent this from happening. It is not good for anybody.

“I don’t think students come to university to learn how to use Google. They can all do that before they get here.

“It is an easy way out for tutors to let them work to their own devices using search engines.

“People have to pay to come to university now and what they are paying for is the knowledge, experience and guidance of people like myself.

“There is a school of thinking that it should be about them directing their own learning but I think giving guidance is crucial.

“I ban my students from using Google, Wikipedia and other websites like that. I give them a reading list to work from and expect them to cite a good number of them in any work they produce.”

She said young people were finishing education with shallow ideas and needed to learn interpretative skills before starting to use technology.

Prof Brabazon, who previously worked in Australia and New Zealand, said declining libraries were contributing to the problem.

She said: “I want students to sit down and read. It’s not the same when you read it online. I want them to experience the pages and the print as much as the digitisation and the pixels. Both are fine but I want them to have both, not one or the other, not a cheap solution.”

Google is a white bread for the mind

The professor is said to be giving a lecture on the issue, called Google Is White Bread For The Mind, at the Sallis Benney Theatre in Grand Parade, Brighton, on Wednesday at 6.30pm.

Source: The Argus News Letter.

Should students be banned from using Google and Wikipedia? Tell us what you think below.

Bees Algorithm

A new algorithm similar to Genetic Algorithm has been developed by Manufacturing Engineering Centre at Cardiff University by Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Group led by Professor. D. T. Pham who was also my supervisor during my PhD.

Congratulations to all of them.
I came across with the algorithm this morning when searching something else. I am sure the method has great potential since we have many to learn from the bees.

What is the Bees Algorithm?

The Bees Algorithm is a swarm based optimisation algorithm that mimics the food foraging behaviour of honey bees.

The algorithm is similar to Genetic Algorithm in the sense that it is an inspiration from the nature to solve engineering problems.

Bees Algorithm Video shows the algorithm in the process of optimization. The video explains the bee dance (waggle dance).

The algorithm is not explained in detail. However, some basic steps are as follows.

Algorithm Step by Step
The Bees algorithm
The Bees Algorithm treats each point in the parameter space of possible solutions as a food source. “Scout bees” (simulation agents) randomly sample the solution space, and via a fitness function report the quality of the visited locations. The sampled solutions are ranked, and other “bees” are recruited to search the solution space in the neighborhood of the highest ranking locations (termed a “flower patch”). The algorithm selectively explores the most promising patches looking for the point of maximum fitness function.

1. Initialise population with random solutions.
2. Evaluate fitness of the population.
3. While (stopping criterion not met)
//Forming new population.
4. Select sites for neighbourhood search.
5. Recruit bees for selected sites (more bees for the best e sites) and evaluate fitnesses.
6. Select the fittest bee from each site.
7. Assign remaining bees to search randomly and evaluate their fitnesses.
8. End While.

It does not address techniques such as crossover or mutation in genetic algorithm. But they must have some similar operations relating to the real life of bees.

If you are interested you can find more information regarding the bees algorithm from here.

We would be happy if some more information is provided by dear Turkish fellow Ebubekir Koç who seems to be one of the inventors of the algorithm.

MEC ‘Bees’ have won the FIRST PRIZE in the poster competition organised by the Graduate School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Cardiff University, on 15th October.

Youtube made Turkish Twins Famous

Turkish twins not very famous in public (until recently) hit the market this month after their videos watched millions’ times in youtube. The twins namely Oyku Erman and Berk Erman rearranged one famous Turkish song titled ‘Evlerinin Onu Boyali direk’ and made a video clip for it. They placed the video in youtube where it was watched 4 million times. The song is already known by most of the Turkish people and played in many weddings ceremonies. The song is originated in Kerkuk Area of Turks.
You can watch the video from Best Turkish Music in YouTube

The website of the Turkish twins is www.oykuberk.com