Landscape change and rural policy: An identity based approach to rural settlements

Rural landscapes have been changed significantly in recent years. Today, the process of this change becomes more visible than ever before with the increased effects on rural localities. Land transformation, changing agricultural practices, technological innovations, growing urban influence and changing global market are considered to be the main drivers of this change. These changes have been linked to environmental degradation and altered rural landscape character. Thus preserving rural characteristics and localities became an important topic at the governmental level as a part of rural development agenda. There have been several studies concentrating on local characteristics of rural areas. As a part of this mainstream, identity based concepts have been investigated for the last few years to find plausible ways of approaching rural problems. This paper offers an approach to understand spatial characteristics of landscape identity of rural settlements. With this respect, this paper focuses on Sirince (Izmir) Village, as its case study, which is analyzed through natural, built and socio-cultural characteristics. In the context of the research, Turkey's rural development strategy and its evolving body is discussed to find plausible ways of integrating identity based concepts into sustainable development plans. In relation to these, literature review, maps, and data collecting from site visits are utilized to frame the method of the research.