Urban functions, influence area and land use of Tatvan

IV ABSTRACT Ph. D. THESIS URBAN FUNCTIONS, INFLUENCE AREA AND LAND USE OF TATVAN Orhan DENİZ Supervisor: AscProf. Hakkı YAZICI 2002 -PAGE: 240 Jury: 1. AscProf. Hakkı YAZICI 2. Prof. Dr. Hayati DO?ANAY 3. AscProf. Halil KOCA 4. AscProf. : Abdullah KÖSEL 5. AscProf. Saliha KODAY The city of Tatvan is situated in the Eastern Anatolian Region's Van portion near the coasts of Van Lake. The urban is located on a slighly steeped coastal plain ranying 1650-1780 meters. Although Tatvan is situated in a region in which continental climate is prevailing,it shows the characteristics of the moderate climate due to the effects of reppressive ecological cycles of the lake over the temperature ( bloking the extreme weather conditions) The average annual temperature is 8.7 °C, the average annual rainfal is 850 mm. The history of the first setted communities in Tatvan dates back to 900 B.C. The historical documents found on the hill behind the ferri harbour suggest that the town has been a prominent settlement since the time of Urartians.But the city possesses no historical evidence to day to shed light on the antiquity due to the fact that invasions played on active role in destroying and looting the historcal treasure. İn 1930 the town had a population of about 300; in 1997 it has become the most crowded town of EastAnatolia,with a population of 65000.The growth of the population in the city paved the way for functions of urban development. Among those functions transportation, trade and menagement are the most developed ones. The fact that Tatvan is situated on a feasible spot for transporting fascilities in addition to the other urban function,shows us that tje city has got a power of centrality. For this reason the city is in a position for the attachment of various function like transportation, trade, health and governing in the other towns or cities neighbouring around it The disposition of the land in the town has been distributed respectively as thus: housing, transportation and govermental function fields;The fields which are the least occupied are park and groover. The city of Tatvan, in which there are usually a regular cirrculation of streets and rood, is showing a characteristics of 2-3 stored-houses of a settlement. However there has been a tendency in recent year to build up much higher buildings in the city. In Tatvan many problem are still prevailing due to naturel and socialogical factors.The major problem related to the nature is the changes in the level of the water in Van Lake and the problem related to the socialogical factor is the unemployment, lack of housing and infrastracture In order to bring a sustainable growht to the city the problem of in frastructure shoult be resolved. It would also be of greater prominence to create new employment facilities based on the pruduction of the new sources in the area