African Journal of
Agricultural Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Agric. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1991-637X
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJAR
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 6860

Full Length Research Paper

Determination of earthquake park facilities in Kocaeli

Aysun Çelik1* and Füsun Erduran2
  1Department of Landscape and Ornamental Plants, University of Kocaeli, Kocaeli, Turkey. 2Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Çanakkale 18 Mart, Çanakkale, Turkey
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 08 July 2011
  •  Published: 26 October 2011

Abstract

 

Earthquake parks are functional parks that meet recreational needs of people in daily life and urgent needs providing temporary shelters in case of a possible earthquake. In this study, earthquake park facilities were tried to be determined for Kocaeli, a densely-populated industrial city by the sea and situated on a first degree seismic zone. For this purpose, 17 big parks, with an area size ranging from 3000 to 587 000 m2, were investigated in terms of their equipment elements, space use, and risk factors, and their conversion to an earthquake park was evaluated. According to the results obtained from the study, the existing parks in Kocaeli have low physical quality regarding standard elements of an earthquake park and their functional conversion is not possible. All the parks in the city are located on the fault lines and in the first degree hazard zone in case of a possible earthquake. For this reason, the construction of earthquake parks with adequate equipment elements in the safe parts of the city is needed.

 

Key words: Kocaeli, open-green space, park, earthquake park.