Determination of quality criteria and performance of city parks; The case of soke city park

Open and green spaces and especially urban parks play an important role in improving the quality of urban life. Urban parks provide multifaceted social, environmental, economic, cultural and aesthetic services and contributions to the urban people and urban ecosystem. The aim of this study is to determine the basic/sub-criteria for the quality performance of existing urban parks and to test them at the urban park scale. In this study, a total of 9 main criteria (spatial usability, vegetative design and usability, aesthetic appearance, structure/material design and suitability for use, transportation and accessibility, comfort and perception, social communication level, ecosystem services) and 81 sub-criteria were evaluated by 50 experts and the weight scores of 81 sub-criteria were determined and the KE PA KAP model was created. In this proposed model, according to the basic and sub-criteria, the current quality performance of the Zeytindalı urban park in the city of Söke was evaluated and it was determined that it was at a medium quality level with a total score of 32.24. In this context, the deficiencies of the city park in terms of basic criteria were identified and strategic suggestions were made. As a result, the proposed "KE-PA-KAP model" proved to be an easy, applicable, time-saving and guiding approach for decision makers in determining the quality performance of existing urban parks. Keywords: Urban park, Quality criteria, Performance evaluation, KE-PA-KAP model, Söke- Zeytindalı urban park. 2025, 81 pages