Examination of noise pollution in the scope of Cittaslow: Case of Egirdi̇r

At the end of the 20'th century, human beings have realized the importance of environmental factors, which they have put on the second plan, because of increasing economic developments. It has become a problem for cities where environmental resources are concentrated in specific areas. In this context, rapid urbanization leads to a rapid increase in ecological problems. However, humanity should protect environmental values and consider the needs of future generations while meeting its own needs. Therefore, the way to bring it to a sustainable form is to make cities livable. Moreover, new approaches have emerged in which the environment, development and cities can be addressed in a balance. The environment is expressed as people live and is increasingly polluted for different reasons. The rapid growth of industrialization, urbanization, technological advances, rapid population growth, so on some of the important factors that cause environmental pollution. Environmental pollution, unlike other factors, is considered one of the very important urban problems that threaten human health in big cities. Even if noise pollution is considered as a pollution, such as water and air pollution, the distribution of noise can be dispersed and change its effect by hitting vegetation, topography or structural obstacles. This causes the noise level in the environment to be different between the value of the source that causes the noise and the people who are affected by the noise in question. The noise caused by people, vehicles, construction sites, industrial zones has turned into a hum that has constantly appeared in cities in these days. For this reason, many studies have been conducted in our country, to determine and prevent from noise pollution, whose negative impact has become more and more pronounced. This study aims to reveal the noise pollution occurring in Eğirdir center where a district of Isparta Province. For this purpose, 35 measurement points were selected in the Eğirdir district center, and noise properties of those places were determined. The research was conducted in the period of; January-February 2023, April-May 2023, July-August 2023, since the district is a tourism, education and inter-provincial transit zone. However, the noise maps were created with using ArcGIS 10.5 program together with using Leq values of measured data. The experimental findings shows that the noise levels at the selected points were exceeded to the noise set by WHO as the limit value of 55 dB(A). In summary, according to the measured noise values, particularly Can Island and Green Island show higher noise level than other points. This is due to the recreation potentials oh those sites in Spring and Summer. However, May-April noise measurements showed that the limit values obtained from the points determined at those islands' entrances, and July-August noise measurements showed that the noise values obtained from those islands were the higher than the limit values. As a result of findings obtained in the study, some solution proposals were presented to minimize the negative impact of high noise in those areas. It is reasonably to suggest changing the types of urban space use in these areas, and carefully consider relationship between the population of the measured area and the amount of noise.