City and Regional Planning / Şehir ve Bölge Planlama

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11147/4274

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  • Book Part
    Citation - Scopus: 6
    Insights for the Enhancement of Urban Biodiversity Using Nature-Based Solutions: the Role of Urban Spaces in Green Infrastructures Design
    (Springer, 2022) Ronchi, Silvia; Salata, Stefano
    Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) increase their efficacy if included in an overall framework such as Green Infrastructures (GI), maximising ecosystem benefits and avoiding possible negative externalities and trade-offs. Urban green spaces and NBS are components of GI that increase the quality of urban settings, enhancing territorial resilience, and improving the health and well-being of citizens. The research proposes a methodology, tested in the municipality of Settimo Torinese (North-west of Italy), for selecting urban green spaces with high performance in terms of biodiversity conservation, which can involve a GI strategy as a multifunctional structure that combines different Ecosystem Services (ES). The enhancement of natural capital and ES provision is reached identifying suitable NBS to protect and improve biodiversity based on the Habitat Quality (HQ) assessment, considered a key supporting service. HQ was derived testing two different sensitivity data: the first based on Land Use/Land Cover, while the second uses the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index. The latter was functional to overcome limits in representing the ecologic integrity of urban areas highlighting an important variety of green spaces and related ES, especially in compact cities. The results are useful for defining effective environmental policies and strategies in urban areas and addressing the decision-making process towards sustainable development goals. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
  • Book Part
    Designing Healthier Cities. an Empirical Study of the Ecosystem Functioning and Mortality in the Districts of Turin (italy)
    (Springer, 2022) Salata, Stefano
    The twenty-first century is called “the age of the metropolises and cities” as they become the predominant living environments of human beings. Nonetheless, metropolitan areas are more vulnerable, for their intrinsic nature is dense and interconnected. The experience from the COVID-19 crisis teaches us how an epidemic outburst has been generated by reducing habitat at the planetary scale, and how the quality of the environment even affects the diffusion of the virus. But what is the relation between Health and Nature in urban areas? Is this relation so evident? Within this study, a preliminary assessment of the relations between urban environment and health will be evaluated by modelling the spatial distribution of the Habitat Quality in Turin and the mortality rates in the same areas. Data will be gathered at their maximum spatial precision, thus obtaining a reliable map of the distribution between the two indicators at the district level. Habitat Quality will be composed by the value of the supporting biophysical function and anthropic threats. Health will be evaluated using the death number in the statistical units and the accessibility of citizens to green areas. An overall assessment will be finally presented considering the simultaneous evaluation of spatial clusters and delineating how conservation and valorization measures can benefit from a site-specific evaluation of Ecosystem Services, while revealing their effects on human health.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 6
    Citation - Scopus: 6
    Valuing Groundwater Heritage: the Historic Wells of Kadıovacık
    (Springer, 2021) Yüceer, Hülya; Baba, Alper; Özcan Gönülal, Yasemin; Uştuk, Ozan; Gerçek, Deniz; Güler, Selen; Uzelli, Taygun
    The consideration of the subject of water resources, seen as a part of cultural heritage, generally includes water-related architectural structures such as bridges, aqueducts, and cisterns. Groundwater resources and related structures, however, receive little attention as heritage assets, and they are mostly forgotten together with the valuable information they hold. In this sense, this study aims to provide an accurate assessment of groundwater heritage and to suggest proposals for conservation through the case of the historic wells of Kadıovacık village in the Urla district of İzmir. Although the region where the village is located is rich in groundwater resources, the residents have suffered from drought for ages due to the specific geological characteristics of the Kadıovacık polje. The limited amount of water resources in Kadıovacık village have karstic characteristics and have shaped the life and topography of the region. To access and harvest this limited groundwater, a group of wells had been constructed on the ridge of the hill. These wells have been idle since 1980s with the supply of city main water. In line with the aim, a comprehensive heritage valuation by an interdisciplinary group of experts is essential to reveal the significance of the relatively humble wells. Accordingly, a multi-method system is used, including historical, social, cultural, architectural, geological, hydrogeological, and environmental aspects. The results show that although the wells are generally considered to be less important as heritage assets in terms of their physical features, an in-depth evaluation demonstrates their high significance for the village community.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 1
    Citation - Scopus: 1
    Groundwater Recharge Estiaton in the Alaşehir Sub-Basin Using Hydro-Geochemical Data; Alaşehir Case Study
    (Springer, 2021) Tonkul, Serhat; Baba, Alper; Şimşek, Celalettin; Demirkesen, Ali Can
    The issue of groundwater recharge has gained importance in countries where there is not enough water supply to the aquifer. However, groundwater recharge is a difficult parameter to determine. This difficulty stems from factors such as the location of the area to be studied, time, cost, and hydrological data. Numerical, isotope, and chemical approaches are used in groundwater recharge investigations. Numerical and chemical approaches are more costly and time-consuming than chemical approaches. This study aims to ascertain alluvial aquifer recharge in Alaehir (Manisa) sub-basin using chemical approaches (Chloride Mass Balance Method) and its applicability. For this purpose, research wells were drilled at 25 different points in the alluvial aquifer, water sampling was done in wet and dry periods, and rainwater water samples were collected. Groundwater recharge was calculated by using chemical approaches from the chloride concentrations of the water samples collected. An annual average of 74.84 mm of recharge was found in the Alaehir sub-basin. This value corresponds to 16.38% of annual rainfall. At the same time, it was examined the groundwater and geothermal mixing mechanism to demonstrate the applicability of the Chloride Mass Balance Method. It was concluded that geothermal fluid in Alaehir sub-basin mixed with groundwater at a rate of 17%.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 2
    Citation - Scopus: 1
    Investigation of Groundwater Potential and Groundwater Pollution Risk Using the Multi-Criteria Method: a Case Study (the Alasehir Sub-Basin, Western Turkey)
    (Springer, 2020) Demirkesen, Ali Can; Budak, Seda; Şimşek, Celalettin; Baba, Alper
    Determination of the groundwater potential (GWP) and groundwater pollution risk (GWPR) areas is a very important tool in the semi-arid regions in the world. Like many countries in the world, most of the major settlements in the cities of Turkey are located in permeable alluvial plains. Therefore, significant groundwater pollution is encountered in an alluvial plain containing settlements and industrial sites. This study focuses on the determination of the GWP and GWPR areas in the Alasehir sub-basin, which is one of the economically important districts of the Aegean region, located in the Gediz River basin in western Turkey. In this study, the GWP and the GWPR areas were identified and a GWP index map was generated. The GWP areas in the study basin were determined using different proxies as a multi-criteria method based on geographic information system (GIS) integrated with remote sensing (RS). The result of the study indicates that the most GWP locations in the basin are seen in the west and southeast of the study region. Based on these results, it is understood that the significant GWP and GWPR areas are near the big settlement districts such as Alasehir and Salihli. In particular, the 115-ha organized industrial zone located in the Salihli district is an important factor of the potential for consuming and contaminating water resources. This study method is so important for the selection of both city and industrial areas as well as for regional environmental planning in terms of the GWPR management.