Evaluation of seasonal shadow effects on design of open green spaces: Çayırlı Mustafa Karabulut Park example

The creation of shaded areas in outdoor design has great importance in warm climates for human comfort. This study was carried out in Çayırlı Mustafa Karabulut Park which are located in Antalya. Current location and status of all plants and structural shadow elements of the case area were identified and examined. Collected data were transferred to Ecotect Analysis software for evaluating shadow values in the current situation. Final crown width and size of the trees have been modelled. By this "Future state analysis" has been created by the estimated states of the plants. The variation analysis has been created by ArcGIS software to interpret the differences between "current situation" and "future state". Thus, increases and decreases occurring in the shadow rates were determined locally. According to the results, it concluded that the species and the design features are not suitable and plants are not developed that they have to be. Furthermore, there is no adequate shade effect even though there are a sufficient number of plants in the case area. The usability of the park was affected negatively from this situation. Also it have been observed that the park has not been used until the evening in the summer season. A survey was carried out for to determine preferences of the visitors and the effect of sunshine durations between the visiting hours to 400 individuals which were divided equally into each season. The frequently used times of the case area were analyzed to calculate shadow values for each seasons according to the results of the survey. This study shows that the case's area shade properties and shadow times' frequencies are inadequate in terms of human comfort. It was determined that the amount of shade in an area affects time spent in a park for visitors. By comparing the analysis of the generated data and previous studies, constructional and planting designs were proposed for the case area. In addition, Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 2011 software is examined in terms of usability studies of Landscape Architecture and results shows that it is a suitable software for studies with less surface areas.