Abstract:In recent decades, the ever-decreasing number of green spaces have become insufficient to meet public demands in terms of accessibility, spatial distribution and the size of urban green areas. This is mainly due to increasing attention on the issue of accessibility to urban green spaces. This paper aims to quantify accessibility according to existing qualitative and quantitative characteristics of urban green spaces (UGS) in Çukurova district in Adana, Turkey. Firstly, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of UGS are divided into five main categories: area size, amenities of the UGS, transportation, focal points and population density. A set of 59 criteria are used by referring to the literature and expert views. Secondly, the Weighted Criteria Method was used to determine the significance of levels within these criteria and the existing situation of each park was identified and scored via field work. Thirdly, accounts of the distance of UGS service areas distance from people or users were optimized according to the total scores of existing UGS sites. Finally, the service areas of UGS were mapped by using Network Analysis tools. Results highlight some practical implications of optimizing accessibility for urban planning, for instance, specific land uses might be chosen for highly accessible UGS particularly those characterized by their high area size and equipment variety, low population density, and proximity to units.
ABSTRACT:Accessibility analysis of urban emergency shelters can help support urban disaster prevention planning. Pre-disaster emergency evacuation zoning has become a significant topic on disaster prevention and mitigation research. In this study, we assessed the level of serviceability of urban emergency shelters within maximum capacity, usability, sufficiency and a certain walking time limit by employing spatial analysis techniques of GIS-Network Analyst. The methodology included the following aspects: the distribution analysis of emergency evacuation demands, the calculation of shelter space accessibility and the optimization of evacuation destinations. This methodology was applied to Adana, a city in Turkey, which is located within the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic system, the second major earthquake belt after the Pacific-Belt. It was found that the proposed methodology could be useful in aiding to understand the spatial distribution of urban emergency shelters more accurately and establish effective future urban disaster prevention planning. Additionally, this research provided a feasible way for supporting emergency management in terms of shelter construction, pre-disaster evacuation drills and rescue operations.
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