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Chapter 1
Analyzing Site Security Design Principles in a Built Environment and Implication for Disaster Preparedness: The Case of Istanbul Sultanahmet Square, Turkey
Ali Akbulut and Gökçen Firdevs Yücel Caymaz
Abstract
Today, the presence of unwanted activities threatening the safety of the field, which has negative effects on daily life and social psychology, is increasing day by day. There is no doubt that it is inevitable to avoid these threats, but it is possible to take some measures to reduce the destructive power of these threats. Nowadays, increasing terrorist attacks increase the importance of field safety design in urban areas. There is a loss of life in attacks around the world. The subject of this study is to investigate the design criteria related to the built environment and the measures to be taken in the case of bomb attacks in the built environment. In this study, a checklist will designed to measure the security design process around the building. The checklist titles are taken mainly from the “Safety design and Landscape Architecture” series of the Landscape Architecture Technical Information Series/LATIS publications by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and the Risk Management Series of the Federal Emergency Management Agency/FEMA (FEMA, 2003, 2007; LATIS, 2016) and others. The checklist created as a result of literature review will be tested in Istanbul Sultanahmet Square. As a result of the study, it was determined that improvements should be made in the areas of vehicular and pedestrian access, parking lots, lighting and trash receptacle designs around Sultanahmet Square.
Keywords Defense; street furniture; site security; landscape elements; risk management; public space
Introduction
Although fear is not an adequate predictor of crime, it has obvious negative consequences which affect people even in the absence of crime (Nasar & Fisher, 1992). The security of urban spaces is an alarming reality of modern life. In 2006, while Coaffee and Murakami emphasized there was an issue with the increasing importance of security, and a problem related to the communities and cities, they underscored that these impacted the urban spatial planning and also mentioned new design requirements. These new design issues include isolating the structure surroundings from traffic, reducing the distinctions between neighborhoods, and boosting the neighborhood concept rather than residential areas (Glaeser & Shapiro, 2001). A 2017 study published in the Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering reported that terrorism attacks happen mostly in integrated street segments; it determined they occur more frequently in streets with private-sector structures and heavy people traffic (Alasiri, 2020). Architectural objects and urban areas can be classified into two groups: those of “hard” and “soft” targets. Attackers often refrain from attacking hard targets such as government buildings, nuclear power plants, consulates, and military structures. For this reason, they revert to cities with soft targets and historical importance. Today, crowded urban spaces have turned into insecure areas. In terms of security, shopping malls, stadiums, train stations, entertainment venues, parks, squares, religious sites, and other places with heavy foot traffic are in the risk group (Kalvach, 2016).
Protecting crowded places in cities is an ongoing issue. The utilization of Crime Prevention (CPTED) design ideas has a long history, whereas implementing CPTED-style security measures dates back to early human settlements. drawbridges, moats, walls, and landscaping designed to control access around Iron Age fortresses and castles were examples of uses implemented in the scope of these measures (Schneider and Kitchen, 2004).
The higher the public's interest in the target, the higher the media interest regarding the attack will be (Coaffee, O’Hare, & Hawkesworth, 2009; HM Government, 2010; McIlhatton et al., 2018; Thackrah, 2013). Therefore, targets will generally be public, administrative and iconic structures, commercial and industrial centers. Once again, attacks carried out with vehicles in crowded urban areas of Berlin, Nice, Stockholm, London, New York, Melbourne have demonstrated the importance of taking security measures or bolstering existing measures in order to diminish the impact of terrorist attacks in high-density public spaces (GCDN, 2018). Due to their ease of access, inadequate protective security, high loss rates in the event of a successful attack, and political impact, crowded spots continue to be attractive targets for attackers (Goodrich & Edwards, 2020; Matijosaitiene & Petriashvili, 2017).
Urban security planning to combat terrorism is comprised of planning arrangements using advanced technology such as security zones and rings of steel, where access is restricted and surveillance is significantly increased (Coaffee, 2010). Some important studies were made by theorists. One is Jane Jacobs (1961) – Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design – passive measurements involving increased co-ownership and oversight of urban spaces – , the other is C. Ray Jeffery (1969, 1971) and third is Oscar Newman – the region, natural surveillance and modification of existing construction to effectively reduce crime (1972, 1973) – forth is by Kaplan (1973) et al. While Jacobs and Newman emphasize passive measures, new theorists led by Jeffery and CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) have discussed proactive measures, including active surveillance devices, reinforced entry points, and adequate lighting to prevent crime.
Among the guidelines for planning and design principles regarding the protection of crowded areas are: the UK National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO, 2017) and Australia's Strategy for Protecting Crowded Places from Terrorism (Australia-New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee, 2017), Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) paper on designing for counterterrorism (Royal Institute of British Architects, 2010) Crowded Places: The Planning System and Counter Terrorism (HM Government, 2010). Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design involves; (1) Natural Access Control (the use of gates, fences, bushes, and other physical elements), (2) Natural Surveillance – “Eyes on the Street”, (3) Regional Strengthening (fences, sidewalks, sculptures, signs, good care and landscape design), an...
