A third large metropolis of Turkey, Izmir is an industrial city of high importance for the country. It is a key seaport harbor, strategic for the country and the Mediterranean region in general, highly important for the transportation network within the Aegean, Marmara and the Mediterranean Seas. Izmir is also known as an important country's business and fair trade center, where cross-cultural meetings, Expo exhibitions, international conferences, symposia and workshops being periodically

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... zed. Therefore, the region has intensive anthropogenic activities: well developed transport network, intensive shipping and maritime construction, industrial factories and plants, urban densely populated districts, intensive agricultural cultivation. These factors taken together lead to strong anthropogenic pressure on the environment of Izmir. Overall, comparing to other Turkish regions (for example, central plateau regions, North Sea coasts, or eastern part of the country), western Turkey has more anthropogenic pressure on the environment due to the intensive industrial development on the region. Naturally, this includes various sources of contamination. Many research papers investigated currently the environmental conditions in Izmir surroundings, reporting various aspects of ecological sustainability in the region in the past decades up to now. The analysis of the most important relevant findings was performed, in order to illustrate current environmental problems within the Izmir region.