An examination of the compact city concept on the scale of the neighborhood: A model proposal on the city of Trabzon

Nowadays Sustainable city models are more prominent in urban planning practice. Since urban sprawl causes great economic, physical and social disadvantages to cities, the concept of "compact city" has come to agenda in order to prevent the problems of urban sprawl. Developing an applicable measurement method in order to put this city model in an appropriate framework is critical in the reflection of this city model on future plan decisions. This study aims to develop a method to measure urban compactness at the neighborhood scale as the major unit constituting the city. For this purpose, 20 neighborhoods in Trabzon Ortahisar were selected and classified according to the criteria of "density" and "distance to the center". Then, five basic urban facilities and their walking distance recommendations for the neighborhood scale were determined based on the literature. Afterwards, the number of these five urban facilities in the selected 20 neighborhoods was determined and their service areas were drawn within walking distance with the help of the ArcGIS program. It is assumed that the number of accessible urban facilities at the neighborhood scale and the excess in the overlapping of the service areas of these urban facilities can be an indicator of the compactness of the settlement. As a result of the study, compactness thresholds were determined over Trabzon Ortahisar neighborhoods. In addition, the relationship between the data obtained from the "ratio of the urban facilities service areas to the neighborhood area" and the "density" factor was revealed as a result of the correlation analysis.