Evaluation of active green areas in line with user perceptions: Canakkale (Turkey)

The development of a country is directly proportional to the economic, cultural and social development of regions, cities, counties and neighborhoods. A determinant of living standards in societies, development level may be explained by active green space amount per person, coming to the fore in urban welfare. In Turkey, this amount is determined by the standard of at least 10 m2 per person. This study found the green space amount per person in the Canakkale urban area was 3.05 m2. Additionally, in order to reach the standard, the urban area needs to expand by 945,696 m2 area. An aim of this study was user assessment of the leading active green areas in Canakkale central neighborhoods according to criteria like degree of visual effect, area size, accessibility, safety and sufficiency/variety of equipment. For this, a survey study of 100 users was completed randomly face-to-face. The data obtained as a result of the survey had linear regression analysis performed with the SPSS 15.0 statistical analysis program. In this stage, an attempt was made to explain the effects of active green space criteria on user behavior. Accordingly, the most attractive criteria for users were safety, variety and amount of equipment and esthetic aspects of green spaces. These were followed by accessibility and area size criteria. In conclusion, green space planning without consideration of user perceptions will not receive positive feedback from users in terms of satisfaction. © 2020 Parlar Scientific Publications. All rights reserved.