KORA STRATEGY · FOUNDER
Founder and Lead Researcher at Kora Strategy
Sıla Özkavaf Şenalp is an urban and regional planner and the founder of Kora Strategy, an İzmir-based consultancy and research studio. Her work focuses on territorial resilience, particularly rural–urban relations, food systems and adaptation to environmental change. She combines spatial analysis, fieldwork and policy research to understand how climate and land-use changes affect livelihoods in urban and rural areas. Her work uses that evidence to help public institutions and communities identify planning and adaptation priorities grounded in local experience.
She holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning from Middle East Technical University (METU) and completed the PLANET Europe Erasmus Mundus joint master’s programme at Radboud University and Cardiff University. Her doctoral research examined how farmers in northwestern Ankara respond to climate pressures and changes in agricultural landscapes. The dissertation received a 2023 İlhan Tekeli Doctoral Dissertation Encouragement Award.
Research, policy and planning projects across Türkiye and Europe.
2025–2026 · National researcher, Kora Strategy
Contributed to the Türkiye country study with the University of Gloucestershire’s Countryside and Community Research Institute. Reviewed programme documents and interviewed stakeholders in Ankara, Samsun and Denizli to examine programme delivery, recipients’ experiences and locally led rural development.
2026–2030 · Management Committee member for Türkiye, Kora Strategy
Represents Türkiye on the Management Committee of FutureLands (CA25162), a European network on community-led agroecology and rural–urban food systems.
2025–2026 · Researcher, Kora Strategy
Contributed to a TÜBİTAK-funded research project led by METU on the relationships between Ankara’s burial mounds, their surrounding landscapes and contemporary urban life.
Research in progress
Uses walking catchments and population-weighted measures to examine how access to different types of food outlets varies across neighbourhoods in Karşıyaka, İzmir.
2022–2025 · Urban planner and project management specialist, Parabol Software
Supported İzmir’s Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan and İstanbul’s Stage II Implementation Plan through household travel surveys, transport modelling, scenario development and stakeholder coordination.
2015–2023 · Doctoral research, METU
Combined farmer interviews, field observation and spatial analysis in Güdül, Beypazarı and Ayaş to examine how agricultural producers respond to climate pressures and other changes affecting land, water and livelihoods.
2020–2022 · Researcher, METU
Contributed to a British Academy-funded study of water management in the Konya Plain, examining how past and present water practices can inform responses to scarcity.
Salata, S., Ozkavaf-Senalp, S., Velibeyoğlu, K., & Elburz, Z. (2022). Land, 11(3), 416.
Salata, S., Özkavaf-Şenalp, S., & Velibeyoğlu, K. (2022). Urban Science, 6(1), 19.
IN REVIEW
Ziafati Bafarasat, A., Sharifi, A., Chesh, A., Ramezani, L., & Özkavaf-Şenalp, S. (2026). Living with risk, malnutrition and illness in metropolitan regions: A comparative view of systemic causes and potential solutions in Jakarta, Antananarivo and Ankara. Under review at Built Environment.
Özkavaf-Şenalp, S., & Özçam, Z. (2026). Assessing neighbourhood-scale food accessibility through the lens of the 15-minute city: Spatial insights from Karşıyaka, İzmir. Under review at Journal of Urbanism.
Özkavaf Şenalp, S. (2026). Response orientation and operational reach in agricultural landscapes of northwestern Ankara. Manuscript submitted to Journal of Rural Studies.
Özçam, Z., & Özkavaf Şenalp, S. (2024, first published online in 2025). In Crisis, Conflict and Celebration (pp. 89–119). Palgrave Macmillan.
Akpınar, İ., Can-Traunmüller, I., Özçam, Z., & Özkavaf Şenalp, S. (2022). In Emerging Approaches in Design and New Connections With Nature (pp. 155–178). IGI Global.
Özkavaf Şenalp, S. (2023). PhD dissertation, Middle East Technical University.
Peker, E., Ataöv, A., Özkavaf, S., Massa, M., & Motta, D. (2021). Heritage Turkey, 11, 22–23.
For research collaboration, project enquiries or speaking invitations, please get in touch through Kora Strategy.