What was once a stream corridor prone to dangerous flooding has been transformed into a thriving ecological park. Urban and Regional Planner Dr. Melek Karahasan explains how Istanbul’s Ayamama Life Valley became one of the city’s most beloved public spaces. Grey to green As one of the world’s most densely populated cities, access to nature in Istanbul is not always guaranteed. The city is home to 16 million residents with tourists bumping that number up to 20 million. Per person, Istanbul has around eight square meters of green space, roughly the size of a parking space – well below European averages. As a flagship of Istanbul’s Green Strategy, the project is transforming a 800,000 m² degraded stream corridor into a resilient ecological park using nature-based solutions. The corridor had long been a symbol of urban neglect. It was an industrially polluted stream bed surrounded by uncontrolled development, dumping sites, and chronic flooding. The urban heat island effect, caused by intensive concrete surfaces, compounded the problem. It was a space to be avoided rather than enjoyed. The project set out to change that through innovative ecological engineering. Techniques like hydroseeding, which rapidly establishes vegetation by spraying seeds and nutrients across the land, alongside native planting and permeable surfaces, helped restore ecological balance while reducing flood risk and heat.Over the past five years, 6,000 mature trees have been planted, sequestering 132 tonnes of CO₂ annually. The stream corridor that people once avoided has now become an active urban living space. As Melek puts it, “The stream corridor that people once avoided has now become an active urban living space.” High stakes, high ambition The combination of a rapidly growing population, unplanned urbanisation, industrial activity, and insufficient drainage infrastructure had turned the Ayamama stream into a disaster waiting to happen. The corridor had