Getting to know the region better

Our research teams successfully finished their landuse and questionnaire surveys and collected the data from various institutions in Zonguldak. The last day of the fieldtrip is devoted to getting to know the region in which Zonguldak is located further.

The wider region (NUTS IILevel-TR81) is composed of two more cities-Bartın and Karabük-which were part of the city of Zonguldak until the 1990s. The aim of the field trip today was to observe the ways in which Zonguldak, Karabük and Bartın which in the past comprised the province of Zonguldak were functionally operating today. Our first trip was to Bartın where we also enjoyed the coastal district of Amasra.

 Ottoman history in the city of Bartın

The holiday resort of Bartın: Amasra

The smiley faces of our enthusiastic team after a delicious lunch at Amasra (the city of Amasra behind)

We than left Amasra for our next stop-the world heritage city of Safranbolu.  We were fascinated by the beauties of the northwest of Turkey, on our way to Safranbolu.

On our way to Safranbolu

Safranbolu: the world heritage city,1994

We left Safranbolu and headed to our final destination, Karabük which has developed as the centre of iron and steel industry, thanks to the state owned enterprise of KARDEMIR. KARDEMIR, which used to use the coals coming from Zonguldak as an input in producing iron and steel in its factory, contributed to the development of Zonguldak as a mining city and has been a major reason behind the collapse of TTK when it started to use imported coal after being privatised in the 1990w. We were fascinated by the size of the factory and the ways in which it contributed to the development of the economy of Karabük.

 We talked about the location decision of an iron and steel factory: the importance of spatial proximity to water as a resource.

 The importance of logistics: the railway as an important infrastructure to transfer raw, semi-manfacured and end products to/from the factory

The end product: the iron and steel plaques

What an exciting day it was. We were back at Zonguldak to pack for leaving the city tomorrow morning.