Investigating the green space accessibility for assembly areas of the urban road in case of disaster: Kastamonu case study

With the recent increase in disasters, creating disaster-resilient urban planning and developing solution suggestions are of critical importance. Natural disasters such as earthquakes create risks for roads. In Turkey there is an increase in earthquakes in recent years and many people lose their lives. In cities, the roads in the built environment direct movement, and there is a need to examine the spatial accessibility of assembly areas in the road network in case of disaster. Green areas, as assembly areas, have spatial potential with their numerous contributions to the city in reducing the impact of disasters. This study aims to analyze assembly points for disaster by evaluating the accessibility of green areas in the transportation network of the city of Kastamonu in Turkey, which is located in the first-degree earthquake zone. The road network and green space data were analyzed through open street map (OSM) and Overpass turbo tools. The accessibility of the transportation network within the city was evaluated using the space syntax method in DepthmapX and QGIS softwares, and the assembly points on the roads were evaluated with buffer and network analyzes in the ArcGIS software. As a result of the research, although green areas in the Kastamonu city center constitute the majority of the city, it was determined in the analysis that 40% of the green areas are accessible. Accessible green areas are within walking distance of the road network, and access to assembly areas decreases as you move away from the main road. As a result of the research, it was shown that the green area transportation potential of the Kastamonu city center is high and that the hierarchy of the road network and the accessibility of green areas in the road network are important parameters in creating an earthquake-resilient city. The study also revealed that service areas and route plans should be developed within walking distance to green areas over the road network. The results of this research will contribute to increasing the efficiency of urban planning studies and improving the disaster fighting capacity of decision makers with the proposed methods.