After the 2023 earthquake in Turkey, post-occupancy evaluation of urban open-green areas: The case of Malatya

In Turkey, especially after earthquakes, the lack of emergency assembly areas required for people to gather and shelter in a safe environment makes it very difficult to carry out activities such as security, health, shelter and emergency aid after the earthquake. In addition, user satisfaction has decreased due to many negative changes in the existing open green areas used as assembly areas. Therefore, the aim of this research was to examine the pre-earthquake, during and after-earthquake uses of open and green areas in Malatya in the February 6, 2023 earthquake. Only the areas in the open green areas category in the list of emergency assembly areas in Malatya city were selected for the purpose of this thesis. The Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) method was used for this purpose. Three different techniques were used as part of the POE method: On-site analysis and photography, survey and interview studies. In this context, interviews with local administrators and a survey among users were conducted. A total of 60 people were interviewed, including 10 authorized persons for each area. A survey study (240 in total) was conducted separately for each area to measure the satisfaction of users in the areas, to find out how they used these areas before the earthquake, and to investigate the problems and difficulties encountered after the earthquake. As a result of the study, the results of the investigation of the functions of the study areas both as post-earthquake emergency assembly areas and as urban open green spaces were presented, and as a result of these investigations, suggestions were made for the design and planning of open green spaces selected as post-earthquake assembly areas, especially in the earthquake region.