A model for assessing the urban heat Island effect in urban regeneration areas: case of mamak and the north ankara

Urban regeneration, which aims to provide increased sustainability in terms of higher quality urban environment and better urban livability, has been on the agenda in Türkiye. Ankara, the capital city, has long faced uncontrolled development of squatter areas due to rural-to-urban migration, resulting in critical structural problems, including low-quality constructions, poor infrastructure, and insufficient urban services. Urban regeneration has been presented as a solution to those problems. This study investigates whether urban regeneration provides environmental benefits in terms of mitigating urban heat islands (UHI). Two large-scale urban regeneration areas in Ankara, the New Mamak Urban Regeneration Project (NMURP) and the North Ankara Urban Regeneration Project (NAURP), are anaylzed, both of which have been undergoing transformation more than a decade. Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 satellite images were used to detect the land use-based changes in the surface UHI, based on UHIER index, between 2005 and 2022, CORINE datasets were utilized for land use classification in the study areas for comparison. The results show that UHI values decreased in entire project areas due to removal of squatter settlements and partial completion of the transformation. However, when the local variations are observed, it is concluded that UHI values increased in already transformed sites as a result of high built-up densities, where complex cultivation pattern is replaced by urban fabric in NMURP, agriculture and construction sites replaced by urban fabric, natural grasslands replaced by road network and urban fabric, and urban fabric is replaced by urban green areas and construction sites in NAURP.