Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
METU JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, cilt.33, sa.2, ss.1-17, 2016 (AHCI)
Biophysical properties of green areas, which have an increasing importance in sustainable urban management, play a significant role in improving the urban climate. Especially, urban parks that are densely populated with trees can contribute to reduction of greenhouse gases and provide energy savings by cooling down the air, increasing the relative humidity, supplying fresh air, filtrating air, absorbing noise and producing oxygen. In this article, the climatic impacts of urban parks on surrounding environments are investigated in three similar middle scale urban park samples by examining temperature relations with their surroundings. The hypothesis of the study is that micro-climatic structure, which occurs as a result of the physical attributes of the park areas, has an effect on the buffer zones of the park areas and the level of temperature rises in the buffer zones as a result of this effect. By using 2000-2012 summer period Landsat images, each park's average temperature is calculated and compared to each year's average temperature, starting from the park center to their 50m, 100m and 150m buffer zones. Micro climatic influences of middle scale park areas and their significance levels are tested on the three parks examined. When group variations are found to be homogenous, Tukey tests have been used, on the other hand, in case variations are not homogeneous, Tamhane's T2 test has been used and sub classes have been examined between 95% confidence bounds. The average temperatures of the sub classes' ranged from 0m - 50m and 50m - 100m. However some interferences are observed between 100m - 150m. It has also been understood that the temperature levels rise, as we move away from the park centers and this temperature rise varies gradually from 4.4 degrees C to 6.7 degrees C. In the light of these results, it is propounded that climatic effects should be considered as a parameter in planning and design of urban parks.