Questioning the Quality of Recreational Beaches: The Case of Famagusta, North Cyprus

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to provide a descriptive and explanatory analysis of the existing Recreational Beach facilities in the urban interfaces within Famagusta, North Cyprus. Accordingly, this research investigates urban waterfronts, through recreational beach facilities. The cases are “Recreational Beaches in Famagusta’s urban coastline”. These selected beaches are Palm Beach, Glapsides Beach and Beach Club since they are the only existing and accessible recreational beaches within the city. The aim is to understand the role and importance of beaches as urban public open spaces and to support them to have better quality including vitality and season ability. The study’s main focus is to develop a tool for analyzing the quality of recreational waterfront development. The main concentration of the research is Famagusta’s recreational beaches and developing an assessment tool for defining and discussing their physical quality. As a method of study, in order to assess and enhance the beaches physical quality, a survey based on users behavior and motivation in supporting further utilization of beaches has been considered. This research is conducted based on developing an interactive data gathering process by creating an Inventory Form and mapping accordingly to evaluate the quality of Famagusta’s coastline, their different features and notice their shortages. This form focuses on classifying recreational beaches and investigating their physical, functional and social requirements from scholars’ point of view. An Interview with 35% of foreign Master students of EMU Architecture Department about the shortages in physical quality of Famagusta’s recreational beaches helps to investigate the conditions. This group is collected owing to they are considered as a kind of tourist and one of the most Famagusta’s beach users with expert point of view. The observations also aim to identify the existing defects and opportunities and recommend a more viable framework for Famagusta’s coastline that is also applicable for our contemporary urban public open spaces by focusing on beaches. As a result, it clears that Famagusta’s recreational beaches suffer from lack of some facilities and services. The most important items can be summarized as lack of permanent restaurant and café, shopping facilities, sitting and lighting elements and public transportation. With this regard, some useful recommendations also added. Keywords: Waterfronts classification, Recreational beaches, Coastal development quality, Coastal tourism, Famagusta.