Page 299 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 3

Zeynep Özdemir - Merve Özkaynak

2.1. Urban Green Spaces
Urban green spaces: They are the areas that meet the recreational needs
of public in the urban areas, are planned and designed in a different scale
and nature according to their functions and forms in land use, also ensure
the balance between buildings and population distribution, are used as a
boundary to prevent the development and sprawl of the city, adds the city an
aesthetic value and enhance the physical environmental quality. In addition,
it is observed that green spaces have some social functions that increase the
sense of belonging of urban residents to their habitats, strengthen the social
networks that play a role in ensuring social integration (Dunnet et al., 2002;
Türkoğlu and Kısar Koramaz, 2012:474).
Open and green spaces are classified as active and passive areas from a
functional point of view (Öztürk and Özdemir 2013:112). Active green spaces
are public spaces arranged for entertainment, recreational, health purposes,
open to direct use of public such as parks, children’s grounds and playgrounds,
sports facilities etc., while passive green areas are the areas that are arranged
for environmental health, conservation, aesthetics, instead of direct use of
the public, such as urban forests, picnic areas, arboretums and zoos as well as
high forests for recreational use, afforestation areas, cemeteries etc. (Aydemir
et al., 2004:285-286).

2.2. Grading and Minimum Dimensions of Urban Green Spaces
The grading of urban green spaces is divided into 7 groups: children’s
playgrounds around the residents, neighborhood unit parks (children’s
playgrounds, children’s gardens, playgrounds, parks and sports fields, passive
green areas), neighborhood parks, parks in local areas, urban parks, regional
parks and national parks (Ersoy, 2015:155). Moreover, green space systems
include green wedges, green belts, green lanes, green routes, agricultural
areas and gardens, high forests and forests, cemeteries, conservation areas,
urban green spaces as the green infrastructure (Burat, 2017:239-246).
Types of green areas vary according to the countries, and even from one
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city to another, in terms of their effective service radius and m /person to
the population they serve, their ideal dimensions, climatic and physical
characteristics of the settlements (Öztürk and Özdemir, 2013:111). Considering
the minimum land size and standards regarding the social and technical
infrastructure areas according to the different population groups specified in
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Annex-2 table of RSPC, 10m per person is adopted as the active green space
standard (RSPC, 2014). In this study, standards related to urban green spaces
are used refering to Tümer (1976), Yıldızcı (1982), Bakan and Konuk (1987),
Türel (1988) and Emir and Onsekiz (2007) in Ersoy’s (2015) “Standards in Urban
Planning” book (Table 1) (Ersoy, 2015:157).

284 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate