The idea of creative industries was emerged in Australia in the early 1990s but appeared to be discussed in detail in England in the late 90s. This idea has come on the agenda in order to create new jobs and ensure economic growth. Some politicians have realized that the economy which was based on the manufacturing was no longer effective in the new world order. They have tried to develop new models for local development and they have also discovered that the creative people and the creative industries those people creates are sources of this development. ‘Design’ and ‘Architecture’ -that assessed under the title of ‘Creative Industries and Activities’ by European Commission- are the areas that creativity and therefore creative people are focused. The statistics obtained from this research showed that the creative industries have a remarkable portion in the gross national income among the other sectors (food, beverage, tobacco manufacturing sector) and they are also growing fast. In this paper, the development of creative industries and their current situation in the world will be covered in the first place, and then the position of creative industries in the local economy will be evaluated.

Since the last quarter of the 20th century, demand for energy increases in the world and energy production and consumption processes bring ecological problems in parallel with emerging technology and urbanization. From the 90’s, attempts concentrated on reducing the pressure of cities on the ecological balance, planning approaches for more efficient and livable cities, various initiatives (green city, eco city, livable city, digital city, smart city initiatives etc...) have been tried and implemented in a limited level. The common strategy of all these planning approaches is “energy efficiency”. For remodeling of the cities of the near future according to this strategy, especially in the context of urban transformation, physical settlement plans should be dealt with according to the "energy efficiency" concept. In this context, the planning process to be developed reveals a significant opportunity for the healthy development of "small-scale cities" which did not go beyond the geographical and social boundaries and is outnumbered compared to large-scale cities having growth potential in parallel with emerging technology and urbanization.

This article shares the main results of research project named “Energy Efficient Development of Small Scale Settlements”. Furthermore, this study that is at the point of addressing on physical settlement plan construction process describes "energy-efficient evaluation model" and presents an experimental application in Lapseki which is a small-scale settlement in the Dardanelles.

Childhood obesity is one of the most important and global public health problems of the recent years. Although, to overcome increasing childhood obesity, increasing the physical activity levels is recommended. Yet, the scientific research showed that is not the case. Researchers have focused on many parameters that could prevent physical activity.,Although there is no clear evidence, it has been repeatedly claimed that, physical environment is one of the many parameters that could prevent or encourage physical activity. This study focused on perceived physical environmental parameters that were asserted as influential on children’s physical activity levels. 47 children who were engaged in a private sports school’s basketball and swimming classes wore accelerometer and GPS devices for 7 days to provide data on their activities. Parents were asked to evaluate their neighborhood’s destination density, safety, aesthetics and activity facilities by a survey. Thus, the perceived physical environmental variables were defined. The statistical findings showed that there are no statistically significant relation between children’s physical activity levels and perceived determinants of neighborhood. Methodological limitations regarding the sample size and evaluation of spatial perception may have produced this result. More research are on call. The influences of physical environmental characteristics on physical activities are not clear yet. To remove the lack of producing physical activity supportive spaces on urban design literature, it’s important to do research this topic with improved methodology and with a sufficient sample size. Besides, this new methodology could inspire future research on individual behaviors in urban space.

Social – economical decisions made by the Turkish governments since 1950s for the purpose of development reflect upon the physical space and zoning decisions are made within this framework. The fact that area planning concept has not been addressed with necessary content and technique so far in our country and environmental arrangement and zoning plans gains without analyzing on a parametrical scale the ecological sensitivity and potentials of natural resources related to all areas across the country and harmony or lack of harmony of their social – economical functions give rise to environmental problems with various contents in water catchment basins that have important natural resource features and high agricultural potential such as Bursa Plain, Adana Plain, Adapazarı Plain, Konya Plain, South Eastern Anatolia Basin. Land utilization decisions included in the zoning plans managing the urbanization phenomenon inside the water catchment basins of the areas conflict with the factors such as geological structure, morphological features, climate, and soil characteristics of basins. This phenomenon in the production of new residential areas is experienced in Turkey, also as intense as happened in Istanbul.

Natural features of the area in the study were examined for its suitability for construction. Besides, study area’s plans have been examined; prepared by utilizing the high resolution orthophotos in Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in 1996, 2009 and 2014; changes in the residential area using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology with the overlay method were evaluated. Finally, conflict between the current urban land use and plans in the study area were evaluated.

The importance given to renewable energy has been gradually increasing as it helps countries to reduce environmental pollution and their dependence on foreign energy. Raw materials used in biomass renewable energy are mainly obtained from the implementation of energy agriculture. In this way; local resources are used for the production of environment-friendly renewable energy, agricultural activities are stimulated and thus rural development can be reinforced in less developed peripheral regions. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between biomass energy, energy agriculture and rural development in Karacabey. For this purpose, the potentials of this rural region are studied and a road map for local development is presented.