The connection between landscape planning and spatial planning: The case of Malatya city

Planning the environment by keeping an appropriate balance between conservation and use has been gaining importance in Turkey in line with global developments. Landscape planning, one of the most significant tools to achieve such planning, allows for reflecting economic data on the space and sustainable relations between nature and men. The city of Malatya located in the Eastern Anatolia Region was selected as the example for this study due to its prominent role in development of sectors such as health, agriculture, and industry. The method of the study involved performing a Landscape Character Assessment under planning and design dimensions to reveal spatial planning relations. Under the planning dimension, a landscape sensitivity map was created by conducting "water infiltration, erosion process, habitat function, bioclimatic comfort, urban open and green space system, and natural-artificial threshold analyses" for the purposes of Landscape Character Assessment. Under the design dimension, analyses were performed in relation to landscape character areas, urban identity, accessibility of open and green spaces, and areas that could be forested or maintained as steppe ecosystems within the scope of Landscape Character Assessment. As a result of analyses and assessments, it was found that spatial plans were directly related with landscape planning or landscape planning approaches, and landscape character assessment studies had main ecological data property in upper (planning) and lower (design) scales of spatial planning. Also, a comparison between analysis results and environmental plans of Malatya demonstrated that ecologically-based analyses were not sufficiently employed in preparation of current environmental plans of Malatya. In conclusion, it was shown that legal integration of landscape planning-based Landscape Character Assessment efforts with spatial planning processes of different scales such as Environmental Plans and Zoning Plans were significant in sustainable management of natural resources.