Urban land uses with respect to ecology: A case study for Çanakkale city centre

This investigation was conducted for both constituting an urban land use planning and criticizing the appropriateness of the uses with respect to ecology by taking into consideration the ecological factors in the centre and the periphery of Çanakkale city.A method based on ?Maximum Values Map Approximation Method? was used in this present study. A suggested land use map of the study area was constructed for these usage types according to the arrangements of their priorities by the experts.After the investigation in this study area of about 34 km², the percentages of the protected, agricultural, forest, recreation, settlement and industries were determined as 4.88, 50, 11.67, 2.73, 29.85 and 0.44 respectively.It was found that the study area, which is largely dominated by the settlements, is in fact covered by rich agricultural lands and majority (59.52%) of the present settlement area should be used for agricultural purposes. Areas suitable for forest were noted in the study area, but majority of these areas were used for settlement (31.38%) and recreation (25.68%). Of the present industrial areas, 41.23% and 49.79% were found suitable for agriculture and settlement, respectively.This study significantly indicated that the agricultural use with 50% of the study area was determined as the primary priority. In addition, Karacaören Urban Development Area was found to be largely suitable for agriculture (41.91%) and forest (20.70%) uses with the suggestion that the use of these areas should be revised.Keywords: Canakkale City, Ecological Planning, Land Use Planning, Maximum Values Map (MVP), Geographical Information Systems (GIS)