Akgün İlhan received her PhD in Environmental Sciences from the Institute of Science and Technology in Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, with a FI scholarship from the Catalan government. She completed her MA in Curriculum & Instruction in Hacettepe University and MSc in International Environmental Science in Lund University with a scholarship from the Swedish Institute. She holds a BSc in Landscape Architecture from Ankara University. She worked as a research associate under the supervision of Joan David Tàbara, in the EU-funded project “Methods and Tools for Integrated Sustainability Assessment (MATISSE)” during her PhD studies.
After returning to Turkey, she worked at the Right to Water Campaign (Istanbul) between 2012 and 2018. She has given lectures in “Environment & Tourism” and “Sustainability from Environmental & Social Perspectives” in Boğaziçi University since 2017. She is the author of the book Towards a New Water Policy: Water Management, Alternatives and Recommendations (2011). She has written chapters and articles about water and climate crisis in Turkey in various books, newspapers, and magazines. She is also the producer of the radio program Su Hakkı, which aired from 2012 to 2018, and the ongoing program Sudan Gelen (since 2018) in Açık Radyo, Istanbul.
Project: “Tracing Possibilities of Urban Water Demand Management in the Climate Change Age in Turkey: Deriving Lessons from Istanbul and Berlin”
The increasing water demand of rapidly growing cities obliges many local authorities all around the world to expand their water supplies through building more hydraulic infrastructures (e.g., dams and inter-basin water transfer systems), often at high economic, social, and ecological costs. In the age of climate change, however, cities need to adopt water demand management (WDM) through measures of water conservation and efficiency. With its supply-side approach for dealing with water stress, Istanbul not only fails in climate change adaptation but also follows maladaptation strategies such as grabbing nearby cities’ rivers to secure water supply in times of drought. Berlin, on the other hand, has gradually built a more sustainable water management understanding through its closed-water-cycle approach, ensuring that all water consumed within the city comes from internal sources as well as other WDM strategies.
This study compares the two cities within their national contexts in order to discover what climate change adaptation policies and actions they have developed for urban water management with a particular focus on WDM. The study aims to open a constructive debate on how Turkey can adopt more climate-conscious measures benefitting from WDM, drawing on the German experience.
A Policy Content Analysis for Evaluating Urban Adaptation Justice in Istanbul
The article, co-authored by 2020/21 Mercator-IPM Climate Change Fellow David Samuel Williams, IPM Senior Scholar and Climate Change Coordinator Ümit Şahin, and former Mercator-IPM Climate Change Fellows Akgün İlhan, Hande Paker and Ethemcan Turhan, was published in the July 2022 issue 136 of Environmental Science and Policy.
Click here to download the document.
Pandemic, Climate, Society
As Istanbul Policy Center, from the beginning of 2020, when the COVID-19 epidemic began, we organized numerous panels on the web, where the situation of the world, societies, and individuals under the epidemic conditions was evaluated. We would like to share our book titled 'Pandemic, Climate, Society' prepared from these panels: We discussed the economic and social effects of the epidemic in the world, especially in the European Union and Turkey, starting from the very first days. Most participants think that there is a lot we can learn from this experience and that we need to mobilize this experience towards a just world order to cope with future epidemics and ecological crises. We are publishing this book at a point where we leave the epidemic behind with the discovery and application of the vaccine. For us, the great success of the last two years belongs to science, doctors, health workers, and scientists around the world. We would like to thank our listeners who followed our panels and guided our work with their suggestions and all our speakers who contributed, especially Ayşe Köse Badur and Semih Sökmen, who prepared this work for publication.
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The Problem of Access to Water from the Perspective of COVID-19 and Proposed Solutions
2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellow Akgün İlhan’s policy brief “The Problem of Access to Water from the Perspective of COVID-19 and Proposed Solutions (COVID-19 Penceresinden Suya Erişim Meselesi ve Çözüm Önerileri)” was published in May 2020.
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"Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?" with Akgün İlhan ve Ayşe Köse Badur
Kentlerin Türkiyesi'nde Su Yönetimi
“Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?” with Akgün İlhan and Ferdi Akarsu
Akgün İlhan and Ferdi Akarsu participated in the 41st episode titled "Drought from Wetlands to Cities" of the program “Nasıl Bir Dünya? Nasıl Bir Türkiye?”, prepared in collaboration with the Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) and Medyascope.
"Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?" with Akgün İlhan and Baran Alp Uncu
Akgün İlhan and Baran Alp Uncu participated in the 13th episode titled "Climate and Water Crisis in the City on the Pandemic Agenda" of the program "Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?", prepared in collaboration with the Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) and Medyascope.
Welcoming of the 2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellows
We welcome our 2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellows, Andrea Weiss, Sinan Erensü, Ellen Kollender, Akgün İlhan, and Gökçe Uysal.
Andrea Weiss | Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railroad: Geopolitical Imagery and Turkey’s Role in the EU’s Europe-Asia Connectivity
Sinan Erensü | When Locals Generate: Limits and Potentials of Energy Cooperatives for a Democratic Energy Transition
Ellen Kollender | Voices of Civil Society Actors on Inclusive Education in Times of Forced Migration: Case Studies in Germany and Turkey
Akgün İlhan | Tracing Possibilities of Urban Water Demand Management in the Climate Change Age in Turkey: Deriving Lessons from Istanbul and Berlin
Gökçe Uysal | Refugees’ Integration into the Labor Market: What Can Turkey and Germany Learn from Each Other?
"Nasıl Bir Dünya? Nasıl Bir Türkiye?" with Akgün İlhan and Ender Peker
Akgün İlhan and Ender Peker were hosted at the "Nasıl Bir Dünya? Nasıl Bir Türkiye?" program titled "Rain Harvesting in Cities: The Future of Sustainable Water Management'' organized by the IPC-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative in cooperation with Medyascope.
Please click here to watch the event.
Political Ecology, in Turkey and the World - Rainwater Harvesting in Cities: Examples of Istanbul and Kadıköy
The first meeting of the seminar series titled "Political Ecology, in Turkey and the World" with the initiative of 2024/25 Mercator-IPC Researcher Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu and 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Senior Researcher Fikret Adaman, was held at IPM Karaköy on 20 November 2024 with Akgün İlhan's presentation "Rainwater Harvesting in Cities: Examples of Istanbul and Kadıköy".
Green Spaces of Istanbul: Cities and Natural Plants
Istanbul Policy Center-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative organized the event titled "Green Spaces of Istanbul: Cities and Natural Plants," with the participation of Cihan Erdönmez, Akgün İlhan, İbrahim Dedeoğlu, and Matthew Gandy at IPC on September 18-19. The event also featured a documentary titled "Natura Urbana'' by Matthew Gandy.
"Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?" with Akgün İlhan ve Ayşe Köse Badur
Akgün İlhan and Ayşe Köse Badur were hosted by Pelin Oğuz at the 64th episode of “Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye?” program titled "Kentlerin Türkiyesi'nde Su Yönetimi" organized by the IPC-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative in cooperation with Medyascope.
Please click here for the event.
Climate Café Talks 12 – Access to Water from the Perspective of COVID-19 and Policy Recommendations
The twelfth in the Climate Café Talks series took place with 2019/20 Mercator IPC Fellow Akgün İlhan’s talk on “Access to Water from the Perspective of COVID-19 and Policy Recommendations (COVID-19 Penceresinden Suya Erişim Meselesi ve Çözüm Önerileri)” on June 17, 2020.
Please click here to watch the webinar.
Please click here for more information about the Climate Cafe Talks.
Pandemic and Society Webinar Series: Climate, Energy, Food and Water
IPC organized the webinar Pandemic and Society Webinar Series: Climate, Energy, Food and Water during the Pandemic (Salgın ve Toplum - "Salgın ve Toplum: "Salgın Döneminde İklim, Enerji, Gıda ve Su") with the participation of Akgün İlhan, Barış Karapınar, Değer Saygın and Ümit Şahin on May 18.
Please click here for the event.
The Welcoming of the 2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellows
The Welcoming of the 2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellows was held on October 21, 2019 at Soho Istanbul. The event began with welcoming remarks by Fuat Keyman, followed by remarks from Michael Schwarz, Senem Aydın-Düzgit, Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Atila Eralp, and Michael Thumann. The welcoming remarks were followed by a movie screening that introduced the 2019/20 Mercator-IPC Fellows Akgün İlhan, Andrea Weiss, Ellen Kollender, Gökçe Uysal, and Sinan Erensü.
