Prof. ŞÜKRAN ŞAHİN

Prof. Dr. Şükran Şahin graduated from the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Faculty of Agriculture, Ankara University, in 1986. Following a brief period working in an architectural office, she joined the academic staff of the same department in 1987, where she has continued her academic career to date. She completed her M.Sc. (1989) and Ph.D. (1996) in Landscape Architecture at the Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Ankara University. Her master’s thesis focused on "Problems of Urban Street Trees in Ankara and Necessary Measures from the Perspective of Landscape Architecture", while her doctoral dissertation was titled "A Study on the Identification and Evaluation of Landscape Potential in Dikmen Valley."

During her doctoral studies, she participated in a one-year certificate program (1992–1993) on Rural Planning in Relation to Environment at CIHEAM IAMZ in Zaragoza, Spain, and subsequently conducted a five-month study on Natural Resource Economics at the University of Bologna, Italy. Her main fields of interest include landscape ecology, landscape planning, river corridor landscape analysis and assessment, climate based design, environmental impact assessment (EIA), with particular focus on ecological impact assessment (EcIA).

Dr. Şahin took part in a European Union FP7 project (2007–2010) as a researcher and in a World Bank project (2009–2012) as the national stakeholder representative.  She served as an instructor and assistant project coordinator in EU MED-CAMPUS projects implemented at Ankara University, such as "Efficient Use of Computers for Office Management, GIS, CAD/CAM Applications" (1993) and "European Master’s Degree Course on Environmental Management" (1994–1997). She also worked as an instructor in TEMPUS-supported European projects titled "European Master’s Degree in Eco-Integrated Mechanical Engineering," implemented at the Technical Universities of Gdansk and Szczecin in Poland (1995–1997). She is currently the contact person for her affiliated partner institution and serves as one of the Work Package leader for the EU Erasmus+ supported project titled Filling the Gap: Development of Ecological Planning and Design Learning Network and Adaptive Smart Training Module for Disaster Resilient and Sustainable Cities  (EPD-Net)

She was the principal investigator in three research projects funded by Ankara University Research Fund, focusing respectively on tourism potential, the effect of green spaces on urban climate, and phenological observations in urban parks. She conducted in-depth studies on landscape analysis and assessment of river corridors—a field in which she gained expertise during her Ph.D.—including the Dikmen Stream, İmrahor Stream, and Zir Stream in Ankara, as well as sections of the Kızılırmak River passing through the cities of Sivas and Kırşehir.

Between 2003 and 2007, she was involved as an independent ecological observer in the BTC Crude Oil Pipeline Project, within the framework of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reporting. She contributed to the ecological review of restoration plan method statements and monitored the contractor’s ongoing ecological restoration activities in the field, ensuring their compliance with EIA standards and protocols, and made recommendations accordingly.

She served as the principal investigator in a nationally funded project under the TÜBİTAK KAMAG 1007 program, involving collaboration among three ministries. The project led to the publication of the "National Technical Guideline for Landscape Character Analysis and Assessment at Regional and Sub-regional Scale" (2014). As the coordinator of another major research initiative, she contributed to the "Technical Guideline on Landscape Restoration and Renaturalization in River Corridors" (2014), which was also published by the relevant Ministry. In addition to these, she has taken part in numerous other projects as a researcher or consultant.

Dr. Şahin has contributed to numerous national and international academic events as organizer and/or participant, and she has a substantial body of academic publications in related fields.

She was involved in the establishment of the Latin American Studies Center at Ankara University (2009) and served as its Assistant Director for a period. She held the position of Vice Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Agriculture, Ankara University between 2007–2009 and 2010–2012. From December 1, 2016, to July 2017, she served as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Ankara University. Recently she is Department Chair (2023-cont.)

Prof. Dr. Şahin is one of the founding members of TAPLAK – the Turkish Accreditation Association for Planning and Design Programs (established in 2019), and currently serves as a Board Member for the second term. She is also a member of the 15th Executive Board of the Chamber of Landscape Architects in Turkey and has been serving as the Turkish delegate to the European Region of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA Europe) since 2017. Additionally, she is an active member of IFLA Europe's Mediterranean Research Working Group (Med-Net) and also Migrtion and Landscape. Since 2021, she has also been a member of the Scientific Board of Ankara Geopark. Currently she is Department Head of Landscape Architectureat Ankara University.

Dr. Şahin is fluent in English and Spanish.