JOINT PROGRAMS

The Department of City and Regional Planning contributes to 5 interdisciplinary, Joint Programs carried out with other departments in METU:

Masters and Phd Programs in Urban Policy Planning and Local Governments

Run jointly with the Department of Political Sciences and Public Administration

The aim of the graduate program in Urban Policy Planning and Local Governments (UPL) is to help students specialize in the fields of urban policy analysis and design, urban project management and local governments. With this aim the program offers degrees in M.S. and Ph.D levels. As part of the multi-disciplinary approach, the program admits not only the graduates of these two main disciplines, but also the students from other fields such as law, economics, management, psychology, sociology, engineering and architecture.

The program has two main orientations. On the one hand, it provides a synthesis of different disciplines, by enjoying the contributions of each field. On the other hand, the program aims to strengthen the link between theory and practice of urban management and policy making. By doing this; it challenges the pragmatic approaches which have traditionally dominated the urban policy processes. The program focused on the following issues in the previous years: Urban Poverty, Participation in Local Governments, Local Government Finance, Strategic Planning in Local Governments, Provincial Development Plans, Health in Urban Areas, etc.

Masters and Phd Programs in Settlement Archeology

Run jointly with the Department of Architecture and Archeometry Graduate Program

The objective of the program is to provide students with a solid academic background in archaeological theory, research techniques and modern interpretative methods with particular emphasis on settlement and environmental archaeology. This program aims to train students in both the scientific-technological and social science-humanities disciplines necessary to conduct archaeological research according to contemporary international standards. The primary purpose is to train students as advanced scholars in settlement archaeology for university level teaching, research and active participation in national and international archaeological projects in Turkey.

Masters Program in Geodetic and Geographic Information Technologies

Run jointly with the Departments of Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geological Engineering, Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Biology, Statistics, Architecture and Sociology

Geodetic and Geographic Information Technologies (GGIT) is an interdisciplinary graduate program leading to M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. The aim of the program is to pursue research in space geodesy (SG), geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS). The program is designed to meet the growing demands for skilled manpower at the graduate level particularly in areas of contemporary space technologies and their applications in various fields, GIS, spatial data analyses and remote sensing technology. The program emphasizes theoretical as well as applied multi-disciplinary research. Each student is required to choose a major stream of study from the following areas:

• Space geodesy (SG)
• Remote sensing (RS)
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Master Program in Earthquake Studies

Run jointly with the Departments of Civil Engineering, Mining Engineering, and Geological Engineering

The main aims of the Earthquake Studies Program have been determined as follows:

• To institute an academic program in the areas of Earthquake Engineering, Active Tectonics and Disaster Management leading initially to the Master's degree (M.S.) and further ahead to the Doctoral degree (Ph.D.).
• To coordinate integrated interdisciplinary research within the framework of graduate theses and thus enable the transfer of knowledge and data to the public and private sectors.
• To offer educational services and conduct extension courses.

Master Program in Earth System Science

Run jointly with 16 other departments/institutes: Biology, Business Administration, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Economics, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Engineering Sciences, Food Engineering, Geological Engineering, Institute of Marine Sciences, International Relations, Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Physics, Sociology and Statistics

The objectives of this program are as follows:

• To address the growing national, regional and global demand for trained professionals in Earth System Science and its very wide applications,
• To generate academic platform that support interdisciplinary and research-oriented approach for understanding and evaluating the systems originating from nature and human,
• To study the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere, including their interaction and interrelationships with the biosphere and antraposhere,
• To do research on the subjects that effect life on the Earth system directly such as climate change, global warming, using and wasting of natural resources, land use, environmental degradation, biodiversity change etc.
• To investigate climate changes in the past and nowadays and to advance prediction models, scenerios related with future climate and to develop strategy about problem solving by means of analytic thinking approach on the problems related with sudden climate changes, natural disasters, pollution etc.
• To do research on planning and improving economy politics and decision making for climate change and its impacts, adaptation to these impacts, sustainable development, alleviation of poverty in natural / unnatural disasters, rational use of natural resources, to understand the social and societal issues.