Investigation of heritage plants representing urban identity and the change in the urbanization process

Abstract

Historical textures of the cities are unique spaces exhibiting hundreds of years of urban identity and cultural heritage with all their components such as buildings, outdoors and plant materials. Therefore, historical animate materials are as crucial as historical inanimate ones to sustain urban identity. This study aims to reveal the heritage plants representing the urban identity and their temporal change in urbanization as an example of Kahramanmaraş's historical urban texture. The study was carried out in three stages: a) Identifying and mapping traditional public and civil architectures and carrying out spatial investigations on these samples, b) Creating a heritage plants album describing their use, purpose, and composition by identifying the sample areas, c) Determining the temporal changes in the use of the plants representing the urban identity through user researches. According to the findings obtained in the study, Olea europaea L. (81.9%) is the most representative plant in the city among the 29 heritage plants examined. In addition, 32 new exotic species have recently been frequently used in the city's green spaces instead of valuable heritage plants representing the city. Compared to the past, while there was no significant change in the purpose of creating a shaded and cool resting place in terms of intended use, the purpose of enhancing the visual quality of the courtyard/garden increased by 15.32% and obtaining products decreased by 29.8%.

Keywords

• heritage trees
• native species
• urban identity
• cultural sustainability
• historical urban area
• miras bitkiler
• yerli türler
• kent kimliği
• kültürel sürdürülebilirlik
• tarihi kentsel alan