Developing Ecological Landscape Design Proposals Against Flood Susceptibility in Urban Areas: Antalya, Kemer Example

There are many possible impacts of global climate change such as loss of vegetation in urban and rural areas, deterioration in agricultural patterns, heat island effects. One of these effects is floods due to the deterioration of the precipitation regime. Floods threaten ecosystems and human life in urban and rural areas in many ways. In this context, many methods have been developed in the last century to combat flood risk. Landscape architecture discipline with the structural and vegetative measures it has taken also plays an active role in reducing the impact of the floods that will occur. With the ecological landscape design approach that came to the fore in the 20th century, the possible effects of flood can be decreased. This study covers the center of Kemer, which is the district of Antalya, and its nearby neighborhoods. Kemer district was selected as the study area because it faces with flood disasters at different times of the year. The study mainly consisted of 3 stages. In the first stage, literature research was made. In the area determined in line with the data examined in the second stage; the slope, aspect, land use, soil, precipitation and distance to stream maps were graded according to the multi-criteria decision making method on the Geographical Information Systems platform and then flood susceptibility analysis was performed in the ArcGIS environment. According to the results of the analysis, in a possible flood event, it was concluded that 893 ha of agricultural land and 2/3 of the residential areas in the study area will be affected by the flood. As a result of the study, ecological landscape design proposals have been developed in areas with high flood susceptibility. In case of suggestions are implemented, it is expected that besides economic and social benefits, ecological benefits will be gained as well as. The aim of this study is to develop ecological landscape design applications that are less costly and less harmful to the environment than structural engineering-based applications in areas where flood susceptibility is high. With the proposed ecological landscape design approaches, the water flow will be regulated with plant-based applications, while the groundwater will be fed by increasing open green areas and permeable areas.