An analytical model proposal to design urban open spaces in balance with climate: A case study of Gaziantep

A significant decline has been experienced in the quality of life of people living in cities due to the deterioration of the ecological balance, decrease in biodiversity, together with air, noise and water pollution occurring as a result of population growth and urbanization. All of these factors have triggered global warming, which is one of the biggest problems in recent years. For this reason, the climate has become one of the most important factors in urban design works. The purpose of the present study is to determine the microclimatic contribution of urban open spaces to the city in the context of climate-balanced physical planning criteria, and to propose an analytical model, which may constitute a basis for planning and design works. Firstly, the climatic requirements of the city of Gaziantep were examined by creating bioclimatic comfort maps. In the following stage, monthly wind roses were created by determining the dominant wind directions for the summer and winter seasons. Optimum location and directions that were balanced with climate were determined and slope and aspect maps of the area, land use types and area selection criteria were also created. In light of these data, ecological compatibility and feasibility maps were prepared. In the feasibility map, the temperature and humidity maps were created with ENVI-met, which is a climatic simulation software, for the most extreme days in an area where there were residential areas and educational institutions, multi-storey residential areas, working areas, social and open green areas, and afforestation areas. The results that were obtained with the simulations were subjected to Regression Analysis to determine the relationship among the climate parameters and the design criteria. As a result, the increase in the quantity of urban green spaces and equality on the spatial distribution of these areas will improve bioclimatic comfort (the warmest hour of the hottest period regression analysis’ result is β= -0.384). It has been determined that planning high-density plantation in green spaces and selecting dense and broad-leaved plants will provide a cooling effect (on average 2−3 °C less). Furthermore, adding more green spaces in cities will increase the thermal comfort within city blocks, especially where high-rise buildings are common. It is confirmed that high-rise buildings cause thermal stress (the warmest hour of the hottest period regression analysis’ result is β = 0.472). Hardscapes have a negative effect on the temperature (the warmest hour of the hottest period regression analysis’ result is β = 0.425). In addition to these data, it was found that the mean radiant temperature values, instead of temperature values, would yield more accurate results in microclimate analyses and interpretations.