Reimagining resilience: The transformative role of urban green areas in Türkiye's disaster preparedness

Abstract

Ensuring the selection of appropriate sites for temporary shelters is critical to efficient disaster management and recovery efforts. This study evaluates the suitability of using urban green spaces in Uşak, Türkiye, as temporary settlements following a disaster. Our research predominantly focuses on assessing 240 parks located in the city center to determine their potential suitability as temporary shelter sites using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The study encompasses four key phases: an extensive review of existing literature, the determined criteria and sub-criteria, data collection, the generation of criteria maps, and a suitability analysis.Our findings indicate that out of the total area spanning 2.2 km2, 0.29 km2 is categorized as "Not Suitable," 1.06 km2 falls into the "Marginally Suitable" category, 0.78 km2 is identified as "Moderately Suitable," and 0.07 km2 are considered "Highly Suitable.". This data further reveals that among the 240 parks under scrutiny, 24 are classified as "Unsuitable," 78 as "Marginally Suitable," 117 as "Moderately Suitable," and 10 as "Highly Suitable."This research significantly enhances our understanding of the potential utilization of urban green spaces as shelter locations. It lends substantial support to developing sustainable solutions for assisting post-disaster stakeholders.