Page 237 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 3

Gül Aslı Aksu

1. Material

Figure 1. Kastamonu Central district, preferred as the research area.

Kastamonu province is located on the longitude 33-34° to the east and
latitude 41-42° to the north. Surrounded by the provinces of Sinop and Çorum
in the east, Çankırı in the south, Karabük and Bartın in the west, the Black Sea
forms the natural border of the province in the north. The Central District of
Kastamonu Province, selected as a research area, is located in the southern
part of Kastamonu, where the continental climate prevails (Figure 1). The
altitude varies between 620 and 2610 meters (Source: AsterDEM data). As
of 2021, the Central district with a population of 152,541 people accounts
for about 2/5 of the Kastamonu province having a population of 375,592
(TURKSTAT, 2021). Kuzeykent Neighborhood displays the most intense urban
development impact in Kastamonu province which is expanding in a north-
south direction. A dynamic interaction between natural and cultural patterns
are remarkable in the central district of the developing Kastamonu province.
For this reason, it has been preferred as the research area.
The ”Küre Mountains“ (Yurdakul and Özhatay, 2005; Lise, 2006), defined as an
”Key Flora and Biodiversity Area“, are located in the north of the research area,
and the ”Ilgaz Mountains” (Avcı and Özhatay, 2005; Erciyas and Menteş, 2006) are
located in the south. In these areas, 2 endangered plant taxa on a global scale,
65 endangered plant taxa on European scale and 18 rare plant taxa on a national
scale have been identified. There are also endemic ones among these species.

222 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate