Investigation of parking problems in urban areas and determination of geographi̇c information systems (GIS) based urban parking areas (Yalova province example)

With the increase in population in cities, living activities also increase, and as a result, the transportation area is affected by this situation. This mobility in urban social life also increases traffic density, especially within the city. When evaluated in this sense, the increase in traffic and vehicle density also causes parking lot areas to be insufficient. However, reasons such as living spaces within the city becoming center of attraction, unplanned urbanization and concentration of population density in certain areas are the reasons that further increase the need for parking lots. In these regions where the need for new car parking areas is increasing, the production of alternative and new parking areas in order to reduce traffic density is a very important issue. In determining these locations, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is one of the Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods, helps to obtain very efficient results. In the study, firstly, it was tried to identify the parking-related problems in Yalova city center, which has a very dense vehicle traffic due to its geographical location. In the next stage, subcomponent maps were prepared to form the final map created to determine new parking lot areas in this city. Subcomponent maps (main road and secondary road maps, education areas map, health areas map, tourism areas map, map of central business areas, map of shopping mall areas, map of population data, map of land values, map of existing parking areas, map of traffic density data, maps of population and vehicle density data) were obtained by processing the data for these criteria in the Quantum Geographical Information Systems (QGIS) environment, which is an open-access software on the web. Again, the data for the maps produced were obtained from open access sources on the web. Subcomponent maps produced to determine new parking lot areas in Yalova city center were weighted according to survey research and using the AHP method. Ethical permission approval was also obtained from Yalova University for the survey conducted within the scope of the study. Accordingly, in the final result map, alternative locations for the new parking lot area locations in Yalova city center were determined and suggestions on this subject were included. In this way, an effort was made to contribute to reducing traffic congestion in Yalova city center. Keywords: Geographic information systems (GIS), Analytical hierarchy process (AHP), Parking lot, Yalova, Location determination