Search

The Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected many sectors including aviation and travel. Travel bans and forced lockdowns prevented transportation activity, especially air travel. Accordingly, huge amounts of emission reductions occurred. On the other hand, travel restrictions are not the only cause of emissions reductions. Changing travel intention in the era of Covid-19 is another important factor that affects aviation emissions. This paper aims to investigate the Landing/Take-Off (LTO) emission changes at Turkish airports. An emission inventory has been implemented for the years 2019 and 2020 to reveal the impacts of Covid-19 on aviation emissions. Domestic, international, and cargo flights have been included in the inventory. According to the results, total emissions of SO2, CO2, CO, NOx, NMVOC, CH4, N2O, and PM2.5 have decreased in 2020 compared to 2019 by 49.8%, 49.7%, 41.0%, 52.6%, 40.0%, 33.8%, 49.8%, and 50.3%, respectively. Total CO2 reductions in the Q2, Q3, and Q4 periods of 2020 compared to that of 2019 are 87%, 50% and 43%, respectively. Another aim of this paper is to find the underlying reasons for emission reductions. For Turkish airports, emission reductions have resulted from travel bans in Q2. After the relaxation of restrictions with the declaration of the "New Normal" in Turkey, flight traffic rebounded to a certain level but was lower than 2019 levels. Therefore, changing travel intention is the main cause of emission reductions in Q3 and Q4 of 2020. The results of this study contribute to both the areas of air pollution and tourism management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surplus structures lead to wall problems in outdoor spaces. This makes people feel trapped between concrete masses. In this study, the walls in Izmit were examined. Activity areas in Izmit were determined as roadside, children's playground, sports area and resting area in which the wall is used intensively. The focal point was chosen as the visual quality of the walls in these areas. Visual quality is the user's appreciation or preference of the images of the walls before and after the design intervention. For each activity area, a total of 8 different wall examples of boundary and load-bearing walls were decided on, and design recommendations were developed using three different techniques of planting, constructiveness and planting–constructiveness. For each activity area, different intervention rates less (25–50%) or more (75–100%) were employed. Subsequently, the effect of these proposed designs on users and appropriate applications for different walls was revealed with the aid of a survey. In order to reveal the selection differences between the user group and the expert group, the survey was applied to 100 voluntary participants and an expert group of 10 landscape architects. As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that activity difference and the intervention rate were effective in the choice of intervention. Planting intervention design proposals were chosen for children's playground and roadside while constructiveness and planting interventions were chosen for resting areas. Also, constructiveness interventions were chosen for sports areas. On the basis of the results, activity type in the areas where the walls are located was found to be effective on choices. It is important to choose the appropriate intervention technique in accordance with the user's preference for the activity. Overall, this study aims to emphasize the necessity and importance of correct interventions to walls in order to illustrate the city more liveable, healthy and comfortable, providing aesthetic value in a visual sense compatible with the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowing the energy demand guides the future investments of countries. Nuclear power plant (NPP) is an important resource to guide sustainable energy policies in sectoral investments. The first step for the reliable, accurate and energy-demand-based use of this resource is the NPP installation on a suitable site. Therefore, spatial evaluation is required for NPP in terms of planning and management. The purpose of this study was to identify the potential province for NPP installation depending on the energy demand and to select the most suitable sites in this province by using geographic information system integrated with fuzzy analytic hierarchy process from multi-criteria decision making. First of all, the energy demand map for Turkey was produced by considering the demographic and economic criteria. From this map, it was concluded that "Bursa" has a very high energy potential province. Then, the suitability map was created by handling the environmental, social and safety criteria for site selection in Bursa. Results showed that Bursa has a very high suitability site for NPP, which spans 1092 km2 (10%) after deducting the restricted sites, relatively and least suitable sites. Finally, nine candidate sites were selected from among the most suitable sites, and these sites were evaluated in terms of tourism, agricultural activities, sufficient cooling water and area sizes. As a result of the evaluations, two priority sites (CS-7 and CS-9) for NPP were found in Bursa. The examination of NPP site suitability would assist in the country's development and spatial plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's diverse geology causes natural disasters that kill and damage towns every year. Population growth in unstable areas without geological variables in value studies endangers people and real estate. This study examines how geological factors affect house values, which are often overlooked in applications. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was used to analyze conventional parameters, geological factors, and priorities for three provinces in Turkey with unique geological properties in surface water, groundwater, active faults, and karstic collapse. The AHP analysis was performed in the Ankara–Cankaya district (Ilkbahar quarter), Bolu–Gerede district, and Konya–Karapinar district, test locations with unique geological properties in terms of surface water, groundwater, active faults, and karstic collapse in various regions of Turkey. Statistical software analyzed the test location survey data. The results show that surface water, groundwater, active faults, and karstic collapse all affect real estate value. The findings suggest that house valuation requires multidisciplinary building site investigations with appropriate methods. This reduces the risk of making unreliable decisions and eliminates uncertainties, resulting in reliable results. The geological factors that determine a house's value are crucial to reducing disaster-related deaths and property damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degradation of soil and water resources is the consequence of a mismatch between land suitability and land use. In this study, sustainable agricultural land suitability assessment (SALSA) for wheat and perennial horticultural crops was carried out, considering a conservation-use balance using the factors affecting the crop yield as well as indicating the degradation of lands. The study area was located in the Besni district in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey and covered 1330 km2 of land. A total of 132 surface (0–30 cm) soil samples were collected and analyzed. Annual soil loss (RUSLE), gully erosion factor, soil properties and length of the growing period are included in the SALSA model. Fuzzy continuous classification was carried out using the Mamdani fuzzy inference system method. Fuzzy continuous classification-SALSA results for wheat using only the fuzzy soil layer showed that the ratios of moderately (S2), marginally (S3) and currently not suitable (N1) lands were 0.87, 72.2 and 26.9%, respectively. However, when the fuzzy erosion layer and fuzzy climate layer were integrated into the land suitability model, the ratios of sustainability classes for S1, S2, S3, N1 and N2 lands were 1.36, 3.8, 47.6, 18.6 and 28.6%, respectively. The results of perennial horticultural crops fuzzy soil layer indicated that 38.1% of the study area is S1, 57.8% is S2, and 4.02% is S3. However, when all three fuzzy layers were used in suitability assessment, the distributions of S1, S2, S3 and N1 classes changed to 2.72, 5.94, 48.86 and 42.48%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural land evaluation procedure is a valuable guide for growing plants where they are best suitable, and it has a critical role in actualizing sustainable plans for providing food security for the growing population. In agricultural land suitability analysis, different multi-criteria decision-making methods are applied. The main objective of this study is to introduce the potential usage of a new multi-criteria decision-making method the Full Consistency Method (FUCOM) in agricultural land suitability analysis. The study was carried out in the northern part of the Karamenderes plain in NW Turkey. Nine land characteristics (soil texture, soil depth, organic matter content, electrical conductivity, pH, slope, drainage, CaCO3%, and cation exchange capacity) were used for the land evaluation study. The weighting values of the land characteristics were calculated by the FUCOM. According to the results, 223 ha (6.26%) were highly suitable, 2650 ha (74.40%) were moderately suitable, 508 ha (14.26%) were marginally suitable, and 181 ha (5.08%) were not suitable for maize cultivation. The weighted values of the parameters were also tested with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Best-Worst Method (BWM). There is a general compatibility between the methodologies. The data obtained from these methods showed that analysis consists of a very positive relationship with each other. The comparisons of these methodologies showed that FUCOM's prioritization order simplicity in parameter weighting and ability to reduce the processing intensity would provide a significant contribution and advantage to the land evaluation experts and planners. It is recommended that the Full Consistent Method could be reliably used in agricultural land suitability analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]