Trees, Gardens, Bridges, Hives

Earth population is expected to increase to 9 billion in 2050, and 75% of that population will live in cities. The expansion of built areas causes loss of natural environments in cities, hence diminishing humans' connection with nature. The human need for nature is linked not just to the material exploitation of the environment but also to the influence of the natural world on our emotional, cognitive, aesthetic and even spiritual development. The quality of human life depends on an underlying beneficial relationship to nature. So people-nature connection and its benefits have become a major goal in sustainable urban landscape designs. Biophilic design and biophilic cities concepts could offer new opportunities in this endeavor by creating common language among architects, landscape architects and urban planners. While biophilic design has been implied on many examples on buildings, its urban scale applications have been rare. The present work explores the notion of biophilic city and displays the implementation of the biophilic design and biophilic cities concepts in Konyaaltı, Antalya, Turkey. Antalya Konyaaltı Beach Urban Design project is a nationally awarded design that aims to strengthen the relationship between nature, people and built environment in the city. The project focuses on how the biophilic ideas can be incorporated to the urban matrix by following a system approach.

Dendrobiology, 2024

Ecosystem services (ES), which are defined as the benefits provided by humans from ecosystems, provide recreation opportunities for urban people with green areas in the cities, while supporting biodiversity on the other hand. This research seeks to answer the following 3 questions: (1) Can the contribution of plants used in urban parks to urban ES be measured? (2) Are the location and characteristics of the areas where plants are placed in urban parks a factor in providing ES? (3) Which ES stands out in the network of relationships established by the ES provided by plants in urban green spaces? Within the scope of these questions, ES provided by woody plants in Çankırı urban park, which is an essential green area for Çankırı/ Türkiye, were examined. In the light of the examinations on-site, the presence of 49 woody plant taxa was determined. The contribution of plant taxa to the ecosystem has been assessed within the framework of 13 sub-parameters related to provisioning, supporting, regulating and cultural services. Hot spot analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis methods were used to determine the ES and spatial distribution of taxa within the park. Subsequently, a centrality analysis was carried out in the Graph Commons program using the network mapping method to determine the importance of ES provided by plants. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the woody plants used in Çankırı urban park contribute highly to the urban ecosystem in terms of pollination, erosion control, recreation and education, soil and air quality improvement and habitat provision. However, the spatial distribution of taxa was not balanced. Therefore, a balanced spatial distribution of woody plant taxa, which make a valuable contribution to ES, in urban green spaces is an issue that should be considered in urban ES planning.

SHS Web of Conferences, 2021

Despite the significant success of the human population in the development of the planet's resources, man will most likely never be able to completely get rid of dependence on the material and energy mechanisms of the biosphere. The clearest proof of this is the existence of urban ecosystems, within which human living space is formed. However, there is no consensus among researchers on the participation of social and natural components in the formation of urban ecosystems. Moreover, there is no clear answer to the question of how and through what mechanisms the space of human life is formed in modern cities. The article analyzes the ontological affiliation of the category "living space". Numerous aspects of the formation of modern living space have been studied on the specific examples of urban ecosystems of Kryvyi Rih and Uman. In particular, sample surveys of residents of these cities were conducted, based on the results of which conclusions are made about the qualit...

2016

Over the past 200 years, approximately 50% of Cyprus wetlands disappeared while the remaining few are largely under threat due to urbanization. With over 65% of the Islands population living in cities, draining of wetlands to provide land for housing units and urban infrastructure has become the major cause of wetland loss. Destruction of wetlands eliminated the benefits originally provided by these ecosystems such as ensuring water quality; providing habitat for a wide range of fauna and flora as well as regulating storm water flooding. Preservation of the remaining urban wetlands as well as restoration of the degraded ones will be a crucial task towards communal environmental health improving the quality of the aquatic systems, ensuring Biodiversity, microclimate adaptation, carbon absorption, natural amenity and the formation of recreational spaces. Therefore, urban wetlands have become significantly important for human‐related values in an era of “man over nature”. Wetlands restoration will become the bridging process between human and nature, initiating social benefits, succeeding in local people participation with designing, planning, implementing and monitoring of a rehabilitated ecosystem. The aim of this paper is to explore the presence and absence of wetlands from a scientific and socioeconomic perspective, in order to obtain knowledge of how ecological restoration and rehabilitation can create possibilities of a sustainable development in the area of Aglantzia. Wetland significance is explored as an ecological system by establishing a framework of wetland historical development in Aglantzia compared to impacts of urbanization. Case studies are examined in order to extract methodological tools towards viable applications for the regeneration of Aglantzia’s wetland restoration.

Urban Ecosystems, 2015

This study makes a contribution to our understanding of the paradigm of ecology in the structure of urban landscape. It looks at the concept of ecology in Tehran's Farahzad Rivervalley's natural landscape. However, this is not intended as a study of a unique experience, rather the spatial and temporal coordinates of the text, the particular characteristics of the river-valley, and the principal issues of the paradigm of ecology, offer a framework within which theoretical questions of a more general nature concerning the structural character of urban landscape can be explored. The focus is on the concept of the social production of the landscape, at the center of which lies the ideal process. It emphasizes that changes in the relation between the elements and actors of production, the physical and mental means by which the urban landscape is created, and the relation between moment and totality within which the production process occurs, are central to understanding the ecology of place and the organization of urban landscape. The paper outlines some of the challenges associated with Tehran's Farahzad River-valley's landscape development in order to achieve the following aims: (1) to apply a landscape ecology approach in conceptualizing a model of thought for urban landscape development; (2) to analyze the content composition and spatial configuration of Nahjolbalagheh Natural Public Space, which has been created as a part of Farahzad River-valley's landscape development; and

Urban gardens, 2015

The study aims to investigate the role of urban gardens (known as 'bostans' in Turkish) as a means of preserving urban open spaces by considering them as a legitimate use of public open space. It uses the historic urban context of the historic Yedikule district of Istanbul as a case study, where the historic Yedikule bostans are located at the ancient city walls. There, urban bostan activities have traditionally been pursued by gardeners with the purpose of food production, but they also help to conserve an urban landscape with cultural value. At the site of the ancient city walls, the local authority is currently proposing to construct a public recreational park project which will also require the destruction of some sections of the historic Yedikule bostans. This will have the aim of, preserving the existing open space, but only in the form of a public recreation park fulfilling only the purpose of recreation and leisure. It is also being proposed at a time when the subject of urban agriculture is being taken increasingly seriously. As a result, preserving urban open spaces ought to have much wider goals than just providing for recreation and leisure. The potential of the historic Yedikule bostans to be part of a wider strategy for preserving urban open spaces to make a legitimate use of public open spaces is explored in this study. Taking into consideration all possible functions of urban open spaces helps to find alegitimateuseof public open spaces and should involve balancing the demands of different land users/actors in an appropriate level of use of space through an active public participation in policy making process from the beginning. This public participation creates a sense of ownership. Therefore, a good public park in the area of the Yedikule bostans should also respects local cultural landscape values, and should be planned from bottom up in an attempt to balance the demands of different stakeholders, the interests of food production, conservation of the historic cultural landscape, recreation and leisure. Integrating Yedikule bostans into public park project to promote recreation and leisure, food production with respect to conservation of historic cultural landscape value can represent the best strategy to preserve urban open space in historic Yedikule neighborhood. This integration identifies ‘a productive public park in Yedikule. Main challenges of urban bostans in the case of Yedikule are as follows: 1. Its non recognition by the local municipality, although the historic Yedikule bostans are under the protection of national laws) 2. The non-consideration of the guide of conservation plans, despite the indicated Yedikule Bostans in conservation plans) 3. The lack of effective control mechanisms to examine the implementation projects in conservation areas) 4. The requirements of the European Landscape Convention, which are not taken sufficiently in to account, although ELC has been signed and ratified by Turkey) and 5. The intent of the local authorities to make a ‘modern3 image in Yedikule. The issue is increasing the awareness of the multi-functional use of urban bostans as the best preservation strategy of urban open spaces and integrating urban bostans into the local open space planning policies, which are largely dominated by a centralized open space planning mechanism. Key words: Urban bostans, preserving urban open spaces, legitimate use of open spaces, multifunctional use, planning paradigms, recreationalpublic park, historic cultural landscape, Yedikule

Asian Social Science, 2014

In this review article, an attempt is made to analyze the problem of gradual though accelerating degradation of the environment in the Russian Federation, its reasons and outcomes. The factors aggravating the problem are classified, and their impact is assessed. Intensive industrial development, enormous gas and oil consumption, a huge number of cars and other vehicles in urban and rural areas are among the most substantial factors. The co-authors insist that if the humankind follows this path, it will lead the Earth to the ecological catastrophe. The co-authors also try to find out why the humankind took this path, and conclude that the present-day consumptive treatment of the nature is the outcome of the technology-intensive trend of the western civilization. However this development pattern may be reversed by the green building efforts, including Masdar City designed by Norman Foster in Abu Dhabi, Tianjin municipality in China, and other projects implemented worldwide. Moreover, the co-authors address the research works written by V.I. Vernadsky, a prominent Russian scholar, and developed by V.A. Ilyichev, member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences, who believes that the rational correlation between the biosphere and the technosphere is a must. The authors believe that the theory developed by V.A. Ilyichev may serve as a means for the reasonable and rational preservation and development of the natural environment.

Cultural Landscape of Van,Turkey, E-ISBN: 978-975-2438-33-0, 2018

GSI JOURNALS SERIE A: ADVANCEMENTS IN TOURISM, RECREATION AND SPORTS SCIENCES, 2020

Due to altering living standards and technological advances of the 21st century, many people prefer to live in cities. Istanbul has been one of the fastest and most complex developing cities from past to present. Ever-increasing needs of Istanbul have brought about increasing built-up spaces. These dense built-up spaces have damaged the connection between the urbanites and nature and thus their interaction. The human-nature relationship has become an essential necessity with increasing urban pressure today. In the context of the human-nature relationship, although different types of landscapes are considered, the most effective parameter appears to be active green areas and, thus, the recreation activities attached to them. This research aims to scrutinize the relationship between the recreational needs of the public and the transformation of natural areas from 1990 to 2018. In order to detect spatiotemporal alterations, this study mainly benefits from the 1990, 2006, and 2018 dated CORINE land cover data. According to the GIS map-based studies, development and transformation of land covers are identified. These studies forward the sub-types, dispersions, and the alteration trends of major land covers as in the cases of decaying "natural and semi-natural areas", increasing "urban fabrics", and partially increasing "green urban areas" and "sport-leisure facilities". Following to reveal the features of the blue-green network, strategies to upgrade the decaying and fragmented status are discussed through the concepts of "physical and perceptional human-nature contact", "collective memory", "connectivity", "productive landscapes", "multifunctionality", and "transformable open spaces".

Scientific Research and Essays, 2010

Urban sprawl and fragmentation of natural habitats are outstanding threats on biodiversity and ecological integrity of natural areas. Ku adasi (Turkey) is a significant town in terms of nearby National Park of Dilek Peninsula-Great Menderes Delta which has a rich biodiversity and with surrounding areas in their natural conditions. Also Ku adasi is a popular tourism destination and it is one of the most rapidly growing urban areas in the district. Therefore it is important to minimize the disturbance to the surrounding ecological structure while this growth is occurring. The main goals of this study are: (a) To identify natural plant species that can be utilized as ornamental plants in Ku adasi Municipality area; (b) To evaluate existence of the natural plant species that are found in some randomly selected urban areas and (c) To make recommendations for Ku adasi to have a well-planned growth which will protect and contribute to the integrity of the surrounding ecology. Three different analyses were performed with randomly selected land cover types to determine vegetation structure: (a) Pervious surface cover, (b) Native woody plants and (c) Structural diversity. The data collected was used to create a habitat value index. The highest three values were found to be agricultural lands (43.2%), graded vacant land (40.2%) and parks (37.4%). On the other hand, the lowest values were found to be streets (20.3%) and ring roads (26.3%).