Climate comfort depending on different altitudes and land use in the urban areas in Kahramanmaras City

Abstract

Climate comfort based caused by geographical conditions has influenced human activities, living standards, and even settlement forms from the early ages and continuous to so in our time. People have been coming up with various solutions in order to adapt to climatic conditions since the dawn of humanity. Despite the technological advancement that resulted in the manufacturing of climate and thermal control devices and equipment, the periodical change of settlements in certain areas is observed to this day. Kahramanmaras and the surrounding city serve as an example wherein climate comfort changes with time and location. The main objective of this research is to determine hourly climate comfort and the adaptation of people in and around city. Climate data were hourly organized, PET index was established to determine the climate comfort, and these indices were classified according to the psychology diagram equivalent to the temperature. Later, the climate comfort maps obtained spatially were superimposed on the city settlements. It has been determined that throughout the city planning, people moved and developed a different way of life due to the temporal-spatial variation of climate comfort. This movement has gathered pace due to the effect of summer heat waves which is a direct result of urban heat islands and climate change. It is necessary that this situation should be reflected in climate comfort-based planning.