Factors affecting the use of urban forests in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to find drivers behind visitor’s participation in the use of urban forests and to explain the differences in co-operation in urban forest management with the help of game theoretic modeling. For this purpose, data regarding public urban forests of Turkey were collected and analyzed by various statistical methods. According to the principal component analysis, leading factors affecting the use of urban forest were, ordered from the most important to the least important: (1) forest versatility, (2) management intensity, (3) visitor services, (4) forest tranquility, and (5) forest activities. These five factors accounted for 71% of the total variance among the variables. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses showed that, especially in cities with an abundance of forests, the use of urban forests was not widespread, whereas urban forests were visited more in the settlements having a high number of young population and a large family size. The estimated game theoretic model on participation indicated that the availability of forest services among visitors was generally harmonious. It could be concluded that urban forestry has to focus, not only on increasing the number and size of urban forests, but also on educating all relevant social groups in society on how to use urban forests in a sustainable and responsible manner.

Keywords

• yeşil altyapı
• yönetim
• kentleşme
• rekreasyon
• green infrastructure
• management
• urbanization
• recreation